|| LI BRARY OF CONGRES S. I 



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LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

BT 



EMILY E. HILDRETH. 



•' Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow ; for the morrow shall take thought for 
the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." — Matt. vi. 34. 

" Every hour that fleets so slowly 
Has its task to do or bear ; 
Luminous the crown, and holy, 
If thou set each gem with care." 




PHILADELPHIA: 
J. B. LIPPING OTT & CO. 

1869. 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

EMILY E. HILDRETH, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Coui-t of the District of Massachusetts. 



TO 

Db. JOHN CHEEVER, 

MY FRIEND IN A TIME OF SPIRITUAL DARKNESS, 
IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY THE AUTHOR ; 

BELIEVING THAT THROUGH HIS HANDS IT MAY FIND ITS WAY 

MOST SURELY TO THE HANDS AND 

HEARTS OF OTHERS. 



rilHE lessons of life can never be absolutely the 
* same for any two individuals. 

Each life has its own peculiar needs ; each re- 
quires its own peculiar development; but all may 
unite in the acknowledgment that there is a God, 
and that He is our Father. 

There are many who are convinced, in a general 
way, that the discipline of this life is permitted for 
our best good ; and many can say with the Psalm- 
ist, " Before I was afflicted, I went astray ; but 
now have I kept thy word." (Ps. cxix. 67.) Nev- 
ertheless, a gradual development of the spiritual 
nature is necessary, that the tender guidance of 
our Heavenly Father may become evident, even in 
the most trifling occurrences of daily life. 

If this little book shall come to the notice of 
any who are seeking for the Truth, — perhaps wan- 
dering in the barren wilderness of doubt, — for 
such it is written. May the thoughts which here 



VI 

find expression awaken in the reader better thoughts, 
and more earnest desires for " the true Light which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 
(John i. 9.) 

That true Light can come only through the Word 
of God revealed to man. The Bible is our only- 
sure guide. Let us go to it with reverence, and 
with a childlike desire to learn what it teaches. 

E. E. H. 

Cambridge, Mass., July, 1868. 



CONTENTS. 



1 

Page 

Our Life in this World 9 

The Voice of the Lord ...... 13 

Truth 18 

Kegeneration 25 

" Perfected through Suffering " . . . .29 

Our Helpers 33 

Temptations 48 

Rest 53 

Patience 57 

Growth 61 

Learning and Teaching 65 

Clouds 71 

Money 75 

Prater 78 

The Psalms 92 

The Tabernacle op God with Men . . . 100 

Right and Wrong 113 



LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 



OUR LIFE IN THIS WORLD. 

"Dum vivimus, vivamus." 

" * Live while you live,' the epicure would say, 
And seize the pleasures of the present day; 
'Live while you live,' the sacred preacher cries, 
And give to God each moment as it flies. 
Lord, in my views let both united be: 
I live in pleasure when I live to thee." 

Doddridge. 

WE rise in the morning, eat and drink, and 
perform our daily work, joyfully sometimes, 
and sometimes with a burden at our heart. Joys 
and sorrows come to us all along the daily pathway ; 
and then the night brings rest, and with sleep w^e 
die to all our former living, renewing our life, at each 
morning's resurrection, from the grave of the past. 

We are young, and we grow old,, and we are told 
that life's experience shall give us wisdom. Is this 
all? What does it profit? Are all the toils and 
sorrows, disappointments and trials, that come to us 
here, to lead us only to the wisdom of experience ? 

There is an old Chinese proverb, " The gem 
cannot be polished without friction, nor man per- 
1* 



10 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

fected without trials," which imphes our need of 
regeneration. But in the daily discipline of life 
we may not always see just how the gem is to be 
polished, although we may feel the friction. 

As we become more thoroughly conscious of our 
own need of " a dean heart and a right spirit^^^ we 
shall accept more willingly the trials that come to 
us; recognizing in each one an opportunity given 
to turn from evil to the good, making them " steps 
up to heaven." Thus shall our life appear to us 
in a new aspect ; for we shall see — 

" A mighty end upsprmging, 
Like choice wheat amid the tares." 

What is a trial or a sorrow ? Is it not the feel- 
ing that comes to us when we are required to do 
or to submit to that which is not agreeable, some- 
thing that we do not love ? When we yield, the 
pain is gone ; and from the agony of the petition, 
'' Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from 
W6," we come at length to make the continual 
prayer of our heart, "Not my will, hut thine, he 
done^ . 

Although we may tacitly acknowledge that this 
outside life is not all, yet sometimes we seem to 
forget that which is within, and it is then that some 
reminder recalls us to the contemplation of our life 
in its true relations. Some life with which our 
own is mingled fades like a star from our earthly 



OUR LIFE IN THIS WORLD. 11 

horizon ; and as it disappears from our view, some 
message of truth — a ray of hght from the spirit- 
ual world — is revealed to us. Some unexpected 
event causes us physical suffering. Some cherished 
hope is utterly destroyed, and we are left with noth- 
ing but trust. Is it not better so ? 

We shall learn thus to listen continually for the 
teachings of that holy voice which says to each one 
of us, ''/ will lead thee in the path of life^^ ; and 
when we are in doubt, His word shall be to us a 
reassurance : " For this commandment which I com- 
mand thee this day^ it is not hidden from thee^ neither 
is it far off. It is not in heaven^ that thou shouldest 
say^ Who shall go up for us to heaven^ and hring it 
unto us^ that we may hear it and do it ? But the 
word is very nigh unto thee,, in thy mouth and in 
thy heart,, that thou mayest do it,^^ (Deut. xxx. 
11-14.) 

The life of our Lord Jesus Christ has been given 
as the most perfect pattern for each one of us ; and 
as we accept it, and make it more entirely the test 
and measure of our own life, new^revelations will 
bring to our perceptions something of the spiritual 
lessons which are translated into our earth-lan- 
guage by the words of the Bible ; and His Word 
shall become truly, " A lamp unto our feet and a 
light unto oiir path^ 

We may not, indeed, make our external life like 



12 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

His in every respect, for different surroundings and 
circumstances, give to each life form and color- 
ing which may not be disregarded. It is right to 
conform, in a general way, to the manners and cus- 
toms of the people among whom our life is given 
us to live, as Jesus also lived in accordance with 
the customs of the Jews, although at the same time 
showing their errors. But we may follow Him in 
spirit, taking His words for our guide, making them 
a part of our daily life, and He shall lead us " he- 
side the still waters^^ and make us ^Ho lie down in 
green pastures.''^ 



THE VOICE OP THE LORD. 

" But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 
To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he 
calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 

" And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, 
and the sheep follow him ; for they know his voice. 

"And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for 
the}^ know not the voice of strangers." — John x. 2-5. 

THE voice of the Lord is His Truth ; and as it 
is received by men, so is it heard by each 
one. 

The voice of man is one of the means by which 
he manifests himself to others. The voice of the 
Lord is His manifestation of Himself to His creatures. 
It comes to each individual soul ; feeble and hardly 
audible, if we turn ourselves away from it, but more 
distinct and clear as we listen, with a childlike spirit 
of obedience, to its divine teachings. 

All truth that comes to us through the Word, or 
through the Works of the Lord, is His voice. 

Sometimes, when we are in perplexity and doubt, 
His truth comes into our thought in the words which 
He has given us: ''I iviH instruct thee^ and teach 
thee in the way ivhich thou shalt go : I ivill guide 
thee ivith mine eye^ This is the voice of the Lord 



14 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

to US. Then comes the question, How. will He 
teach us in the way that we shall go? and, if we 
listen, the same voice shall answer to us, ^^ He that 
hath my commandments^ and keepeth them^ he it is 
that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall he loved 
of my Father^ and I will love him^ and will manifest 
myself to him.^^ (John xiv. 21.) 

To keep the commandments which He has given 
us, — to use the truth that has been revealed to us 
as the rule of our outward life, — is the only true 
way to hsten to and obey God's voice. "He that 
is of Grod heareth Grod^s words.^^ To be " of God," 
is to love to do His will, and not our own, — to 
'' watch and pray" continually for strength to turn 
resolutely away from evil, in whatsoever way it may 
be presented, and strive to do the good. To " cease 
to do evil^ and learn to do welV^ (Is. i. 16.) 

The words of our Lord to all His disciples, are, 
" Follow me " ; and we do follow Him only as we 
make His life in this world the example and measure 
of our own, both spiritually and naturally. Spiritu- 
ally, in the regeneration of all our aifections and 
thoughts ; and naturally, in the change of our ex- 
ternal life as it proceeds from the internal. 

As we become able to perceive more clearly 
that ''the kingdom of Grod is within^^^ and that 
whenever and wherever we permit the Lord's love 
from within to lead us in our external life by " ob- 



THE VOICE OF THE LORD. 15 

serving to do all " that He commands us, we shall 
also be able to understand better the voice of the 
Lord and its teachings, as they come to us con- 
tinually. 

In the progress of our regeneration, we must 
experience various changes. There must be days 
and nights, summers and winters, in our spiritual 
life as well as in our natural life; and, as we be- 
come more conscious of these changes in ourselves, 
we shall perceive that when we are in external 
states, — that is, when our thoughts are entirely oc- 
cupied with external things, — it is then, spiritually, 
our night. We are then spiritually asleep. But 
when, turning from our external surroundings, our 
thoughts are directed to spiritual things, it is then 
spiritually our day. When the voice of the Lord 
comes to us in this state, we listen gladly to its 
teachings, and they are intelligible to us. But in 
the former condition His voice, if heard at all, is 
afar off, and not understood. 

The misfortunes and calamities which come into 
our life here, generally find us in this external 
state ; and, lamenting our own sorrow and suffer- 
ing, we do not at once perceive the truth to which 
they will lead us ; but, as it becomes evident, we 
shall acknowledge even these to be the voice of 
God. 

When the voice of the Lord was made audible 



16 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

to the people who were Hstening to the teachings 
of Jesus, it was heard in various ways. Some said, 
"It thundered"; others, "that an angel spake to 
Him"; but Jesus said, ^'This voice came not because 
of me^ hut for your saJces,'^^ To those who are 
giving their whole life to the things of this world, 
and allowing them to crush and destroy all the 
better things of their spiritual nature, the voice of 
the Lord comes like thunder, -7- heard because it is 
mighty, yet listened to from afar, and often forgot- 
ten when it is past. To others who are striving to 
become more spiritual, and yet, groping in the 
darkness of their unregenerate lives, are searching 
for the right way, it comes like the voice of an 
angel, to cheer and encourage. While to those 
who can receive, it is "the still, small voice," heard 
with clear though soft distinctness in the secret 
silence of the soul, speaking words of comfort and 
strength: ^'Fear thou not ^ for I am with thee; he 
not dismayed^ for I am thy Grod^ (Is. xli. 10.) 

This was the still, small voice which came to the 
prophet Elijah. The manifestation of the great 
Jehovah to the interior consciousness of man; more 
potent than the wind, the earthquake, or the fire ; 
for " when Elijah heard it^ he lurapped his face in 
his mantle^ and went out^ and stood in the entering- 
in of the caveJ^ (1 Kings xix. 13.) 

The wind, the earthquake, and the fire are gross- 



THE VOICE OF THE LORD. 17 

er, more material manifestations of the power of 
God ; but God Himself is not in them as He is 
in ''the still, small voice," audible only to the finer 
sensibilities of man's spiritual nature. This part of 
our nature needs more thorough development, in 
connection with the physical, that we may thus 
come into a suitable condition to hear all that our 
Lord shall say unto us. 

Were all the organism and functions of our life 
brought into perfectly harmonious operation, as our 
Lord undoubtedly made them to be, His voice 
should thrill our whole being with delicious awe, 
and nothing would be more delightful to us than to 
follow wherever it might lead. 

Let us pray, with a living prayer, that His king- 
dom may come, even thus, upon the earth. 



TRUTH. 

"Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." — John 
xviii. 37. 

PILATE asked, " What is truth ? " and inquir- 
ing hearts, amid doubting and longing, echo 
the question continually. 

" Show us the Truth, that we may believe," is 
the frequent cry of the tired soul, when the pains 
and trials of our life here lead us to seek something 
beyond. 

The longings which the things of earth cannot 
satisfy are a spiritual thirst, to be quenched only by 
the '' Water of Life." But in vain do w^e search 
in the world without for its refreshing streams, 
holding our empty cup to be filled by the creeds 
of men, while "the river of water of life'''' pro- 
ceedeth only '' out of the throne of Grod and of the 
Lamh.''^ (Rev. xxii. 1.) 

Our blessed Lord cautions us, ^' If any man shall 
say unto you^ Lo^ here is Christy or there^ believe it 
not. For there shall arise false Christs and false 
prophets^ and shall show great signs and wonders ; 
insomuch that^ if possible^ they shall deceive the very 
elect:' (Matt. xxiv. 23, 24.) 



TRUTH. 19 

We must not depend too confidently upon the 
experiences and teachings of others. The best can 
be but novices in the things that may be learned. 
" Come unto me^ all ye that lahor and are heavy- 
laden^ and I ivill give you rest^'' (Matt. xi. 28,) 
are the words of Jesus. Some may point, and 
some who are farther on may call and beckon, and 
we may listen and follow ; but each one must meet 
the Christ in the path of his own life before he can 
sincerely say, '' My Lord and my God," acknowl- 
edging that He is '' the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life." 

When Jesus asked the man whose sight He had 
restored, ^^ Dost thou believe on the Son of Grod? 
He ansivered and '^said^ Who is he^ Lord^ that I 
might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him^ 
Thou hast both seen him^ and it is he that talketh 
with thee:' (John ix. 35 - 87.) 

In the secret meditations of quiet hours, does not 
this question and its answer sometimes come to all 
who are seeking the Truth ? Does not our Lord 
come to us in every event of our lives, talking ivith 
us in living words? Is not this the way in which 
His Divine Providence surrounds and leads us to 
the Truth ? And do we listen and understand ? 

We look out upon wonderful things in this world : 
mountains, almost ethereal in their blue veil of 
mist ; mighty waters stretching far and wide, with 



20 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

their never-ceasing surges ; wooded lands, and 
grassy meadows, and the delicate flowers offering 
fragrant incense by the wayside. We behold in 
these things visible and tangible truths, because we 
know, and are sure, that they are, — that they really 
exist for ns, and for all who live in this world. 

Now these are natural truths of a very low or- 
der. Every human being with the power of natu- 
ral sight may discern them ; but when we try to 
look within, to perceive the things existing for our 
inner, spiritual life, we find ourselves blind. Long 
do we grope in the darkness ; stumbling often, per- 
haps falling ; distracted by the conflicting declara- 
tions of others, and wandering in the wilderness of 
doubt, before, in simple confi^'ence, we kneel to 
pray, " Lord^ that I may receive my sight ! " (Luke 
xviii. 41.) 

" J.sA?, and it shall he given unto you.^^ 

Our spiritual sight is given to us as soon as we 
truly desire and ask it in the right way. Our spir- 
itual eyes are opened to behold things that are not 
of this world. Our feelings and thoughts reveal to 
us something of ourselves before unknown. Our 
inner world becomes more real, and our joys and 
sorrows mean more to us than before. 

And yet we can see but dimly while we remain 
in this world, — enough, perhaps, to help us to 
'^wait on the Lord^'^ that He may renew our 



TRUTH. ~ 21 

strength, — enough to make us strong m our belief 
that He leadeth us continually. The change which 
comes to us, whe^, leaving our garments of flesh, 
we are free to behold clearly the spiritual things 
about us, can alone bring to our spiritual sight the 
indubitable proofs of unclouded vision. 

The various things constantly presenting them- 
selves within the circle of our life, must be either 
accepted or rejected ; and we may perceive, by a 
little careful observation, that our understanding 
acts as mental sight, turning each mental subject, 
and placing it in a light w4iich makes it intelligible 
to us. But it is our will, or desire for anything 
thus presented, that makes us grasp and claim it as 
our own. 

All things may come to the cognizance of our 
understandings, as our eyes behold all things 
spread before them ; but our reception and enjoy- 
ment of each depends upon our love and desire for 
them. 

Whatsoever comes to us from the experience and 
thoughts of others that is in agreement with our 
own, w^e are very likely to call Truth. 

Our early education has very much to do with our 
modes of thought, and with our reception of help from 
others, — more, perhaps, than w^e are accustomed 
to suppose. We come to years of maturity with a 
creed all formed, — a plan for life that appears to 



22 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

US the only right one, — and, as we come in contact 
with those whose behef seems similar to ours, there 
is always an inclination to gain ^strength by union. 
Could we, however, look into the secret life of each 
one, an individuality of creeds would be revealed 
as the guide which, however modified by extrane- 
ous influence, gives direction to the whole life. 

Thus we accept as truth whatsoever fits our own 
creed. We believe what we love to believe, 
whether we are willing to confess it or not. We 
need to look farther, — to learn that a vast difference 
may exist between what we, with our confidence 
of knowledge, may call truth, and the pure essence 
of Divine Truth itself. 

Truth is our Lord Himself in His purity ! The 
manifestations of His infinite love for all! The 
arms of His love are forever stretched out for our 
protection, but it is the perception of His eternal 
truth that makes us feel their tender, fatherly clasp, 
and helps us to trust all our life under " the shadow 
of His wings." 

Truth is our Lord's revelation of Himself to 
man, the light of Heaven, the shining bright- 
ness of the spiritual Sun, sending its life-giving 
rays through all the spiritual world, and penetrat- 
ing even to the darkness of this earth-life. 

As man receives God's truth, so shall it be to 
him, — a light shining through the shades of night, 



TRUTH. 23 

a lamp to his feet^ a guide for all his way, or, by 
his own perversion, the blackness of darkness. For 
in the face of our Lord, revealing, to all who will 
receive, the hght of His countenance, is only, to us, 
the appearance of wa^ath, ^vhen evil makes us turn 
away from the lessons of His truth. And thus for- 
ever must it be, that, ^^with the pure thou wilt 
show thyself pure^ and with the froward thou wilt 
show thyself froward r (Ps. xviii. 26.) 

God's truth is infinite, eternal, unchangeable. A 
single ray of its brightness comes to the feeble vision 
of man ; and, dazzled by its glory, the revelation is 
deemed entire. Accepting, perhaps with reverence, 
but often with much pride, the glimmers of Truth 
which a life's experience prepares them to receive, 
men consider themselves ready to behold the Glory 
of God in all His wonderful manifestations, and cry 
to others, " Behold, behold ! This is the Truth ! " 

We may believe without sight ; but that only can 
be real Kvm^ Truth to each individual which be- 
comes so by its application to his own peculiar 
wants and needs, although the Divine Truth of 
God may never be measured by man's capacity to 
receive it. 

God's Truth is like a sea, boundless, unfathom- 
able. We take only drops from its immensity, 
yet, in our childish ignorance, compare the drop 
with the ocean. 



24 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

Let it be our continual effort to make ourselves 
ready that we may know the Truth wlien it comes 
to us, and, receiving it gladly, seek the best ways of 
showing it to others. That this may come to pass, 
error must be renounced as soon as seen, the love 
of self entirely subjected, and our own power to 
do held in constant distrust, except as we become 
conscious that we receive all from our Lord. 

" And ye shall know the truths and the truth shall 
mahe you freey (John viii. 82.) 



REGENERATION. 

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." — John iii. 3. 

THE whole life of our Lord in this world was 
a perfect pattern for the regenerating life of 
every human soul ; though the advancement of 
each individual must be limited by the develop- 
ment of his individual capacity in the reception of 
truth. 

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, went to Jesus 
by night, seeking instruction ; and Jesus said to 
him, ^'Except a man he horn again^ he cannot see 
the kingdom of G-od^ When Nicodemus doubted 
and questioned concerning this, Jesus answered : 
'' Verily^ verily^ I say unto thee^ Except a w^an he 
horn of ivater and of the Spirit^ he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God. That which is horn of the 
flesh is flesh; and that which is horn of the Spirit is 
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee^ Ye must 
he horn again. The wind hloweth ivhere it listeth^ 
and thou hearest the sound thereof., hut canst not tell 
whence it cometh and ivhither it goeth : so is every 
one that is horn of the Spirit.'^'' (John iii. 6-8.) 
And yet Nicodemus questioned, '' Hoiv can these 
things hef^ 



26 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

Amid the doubts which make night in our spirit- 
ual hfe, we should, like Nicodemus, go to the feet 
of Jesus, with sincere desires to be taught by Him 
alone. To Him should we bring our questionings, 
with confident assurance that He will not despise 
to answer them all, although we, too often, like the 
ruler of the Jews, can at first behold nothing of 
the Divine Truth veiled for our reception in the 
corresponding forms of this outside life ; and the 
living answers that come to us in the pathway of 
our daily life seem only commonplace. 

A babe is born weak, helpless, ignorant ; but it 
breathes the air, it lives the life, of this world, and, 
under the tender, loving care of those to whom its 
life is intrusted, it grows out of this helplessness 
and ignorance. Physical necessities are first to be 
supplied, and at first they seem the only necessities 
of life ; but there comes a time when other needs 
make themselves manifest, — needs for mental de- 
velopment, the necessities for the life of the spirit, 
spiritual food, clothing, and shelter ; and, as these 
are abundantly or scantily furnished, so must the 
whole life be influenced. 

Jesus tells us that the birth of man into this 
world is like his regeneration, — the birth into that 
condition, the necessities of which must be supplied 
by spiritual things. This birth from natural to 
spiritual life must come to every man before he 



REGENERATION. 27 

can " see the kingdom of Grod.^^ Every soul must 
have its birth, infancy, and childhood for the com- 
mencement of its growth ; and its advancement 
must be gradual, step by step, — the continuance of 
each state being limited by its progress. 

There are those in this world who do not come 
even to the first of these conditions. Their life, 
confined wholly to external things, is comparatively 
not life, but death. They are not " born again," 
and cannot therefore live in the " kingdom of 
God," any more than the embryo can live in this 
world before its birth. There is in all the pos- 
sibility of such life ; but, unless this possibiUty 
becomes an actuality, it must die. 

" Except a man be born again^ he cannot see the 
kingdom of G-od^ 

There are others who are ''born again," who 
give some attention to spiritual things, yet do not 
advance spiritually to " tlie stature of a man," but 
remain, like infants or children, always dependent 
upon others for spiritual support. But, with the 
deepest sense of humiliation, and walking with 
unsandaled feet, man may forever approach the 
Infinite, receiving at each step new revelations of 
the Divine Love and Wisdom. The first step of 
the heavenly way may be consciously taken, or 
education may lead us so gradually in the right 
direction that the exact time of any permanent 



28 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

change in our life may remain unknown to us, but 
it can be none the less necessary or positive. Re- 
generation cannot be accomplished by a single act. 
It is a slow and laborious process, of which there 
must be a beginning ; but a regeneration implies a 
total change of qualities which are at first im- 
planted in our natures. This cannot be at once 
accomplished. 

The words of the Lord, given by Moses to the 
children of Israel, were, '' The Lord thy God will 
put out those nations before thee^ by little and little : 
thou may est not consume them at once^ lest the beasts 
of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy 
Grod shall deliver them unto thee^ and shall destroy 
them with a mighty destruction^ until they be de- 
stroyed:' (Deut. vii. 22, 23.) 

Is there not a lesson here for us? Are there 
not nations of evil against which we are fighting ? 
Are we not sometimes discouraged because our pro- 
gress in conquering them seems so slow? Let us 
not forget that it must be done ''by little and little.'' 
Let us not forget that it is the Lord our God who 
is to accomplish this by His almighty power, and 
not we ourselves. If we will work with Him, evil 
shall be driven from our lives, and good shall come 
to take its place as fast as we can receive it. This 
is the work of a lifetime, and this is regeneration. 



"PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING." 

" He leads us on 

By paths we did not know ; 
Upward He leads ns, though our steps be slow, 
Though oft we faint and falter on the way, 
Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day; 

Yet, when the clouds are gone, 

We know He leads us on." 

WHY is it that trial and sorrow and suffering 
oonie in some form to every one, whatever 
may be his condition in Hfe ? If God is love, as 
we are taught, why should not man. His noblest 
work, be happy, as the recipient of His love ? 
What is the cause of the misery and distress every- 
where existing among men ? And why is our life 
in this world so filled with tribulation and vex- 
ation as to be proverbially called " a life of 
sorrows ?^^ 

Such questions as these often present themselves 
to the thought, even of those who are living the life 
of regeneration ; and, as we advance in that life, 
we shall be better able to answer them satisfactorily 
for ourselves and for others. 

Our Lord is love. Listen to the words that He 
speaks to all who will hear. ''He maketh his sun 



30 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

to rise on the evil and on the good^ and sendeth rain 
on the just and on the unjust,'^'' (Matt. v. 46.) 

^^Behold^ the Lord^s hand is not shortened^ that it 
cannot save; neither his ear heavy ^ that it cannot 
hear. But your iniquities have separated hetween 
you and your God; and your sins have hid his 
face from you^ (Is. lix. 1, 2.) 

That it is easy to do wrong, and hard to do right, 
no one will deny. To '' cease to do evil, and learn 
to do well," comprises the whole of man's regen- 
eration. 

As we come into more interior states, we may 
become conscious of the various and continuous 
states through which we are led spiritually, cor- 
responding with the changes which are apparent in 
this world, of cold and heat, day and night ; and 
then we may be able to^ perceive something of the 
spiritual meaning conveyed by the words, '^ While 
the earth remaineth^ seed-time and harvest^ and cold 
and heat^ and summer and winter., and day and nighty 
shall not cease,"^^ (Gen. viii. 22.) The earth sig- 
nifies the external part of the soul of man ; and the 
changes in this are similar to those changes in the 
outer world which seem to affect the outside life 
alone. 

When we are in states of doubt and temptation, 
it is dark and cold to us spiritually, because we 
turn ourselves away from the Lord, as the earth 



"PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING." 31 

turns away from the sun ; and in such states we 
think that the Lord is displeased with us, and some- 
times that He has forgotten us ; but if we remem- 
ber, that, ^'ivith the "pure thou wilt show thyself 
pure^ and with the froiuard thou ivilt show thyself 
froward^'' (Ps. xviii. 26,) we shall perceive that 
the changes are all in ourselves, and not in the 
Lord; for He has said, "J am the Lord; I change 
not.'''' (MaL iii. 6.) The Lord would make all His 
children happy. The cause of our unhappiness is 
in ourselves. Our love of evil makes us cling to 
it, even w^hen our understanding of truth teaches 
us that it is WTong. 

All the trials and difficulties that come to us 
here are only opportunities given for the relinquish- 
ment of some evil love, that we may receive in its 
place the love of good. The stronger our love for 
the evil, the more intense must be our suffering in 
putting it away from us. This is laying down our 
life ; but the words of the Lord are, ^^He that 
loseth his life for my sake shall find it.'^^ (Matt. 
X. 39.) 

When it is required to relinquish something for 
which we have an affection, the good that -will 
come to us in consequence is not often evident at 
the time ; but when we are able to consider more 
interiorly all the events of this life, we shall per- 
ceive how each has been a stepping-stone to a 
higher and better state. 



32 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

Let US trust, therefore, with childlike confidence 
in the Divine Providence ; rejoicing that we may 
be made perfect, even through suffering, and know- 
ing that '' we have not an high priest which cannot 
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities," 
(Heb. iv. 15,) for " he was a man of sorrows^ and 
acquainted with grief ^ (Is. liii. 8.) Our Lord 
lived the life that we live, and suffered as we 
suffer, and infinitely more than we can suffer or 
imagine of suffering. His Human Nature was, for 
our sakes, " perfected through suffering," and made 
Divine. May we not, shall we not always, receive 
consolation and strength from this knowledge, even 
though w^e walk in the valley of the shadow of 
death ? 



OUR HELPERS. 

" The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear 
him, and delivereth them." — PsAor xxxiv. 7. 

HOWEVER self-reliant we may become, there 
are times in the life of each one, when the 
help of others is desired and needed. Although 
self-rehance is one of the lessons of life which we 
need to learn, yet we may not, and ought not, to 
live entirely independently of others. 

Each one who lives to a life of maturity in this 
world must find for himself an answer to the ques- 
tions which will always present themselves to every 
inquiring mind : What is it to live ? Why do I 
live ? And what shall my life be ? But it is chiefly 
by the help of others that the answer is made legi- 
ble to us, as we fill the leaves of our "book of 
life." It is our connection with others that brings 
to us our most important lessons. 

It very often appears to us, in the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of each life, that those who should be 
the helpers are the only hinderers. Those who 
are united by the nearest and dearest ties of earth 
seem often, to our external vision, just the opposite 
of helpers to each other. When we find ourselves 



34 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

in such conditions with regard to those connected 
with us in the duties and relations of this hfe, we 
are apt to feel that some other position would be 
preferable, and more conducive to our spiritual de- 
velopment. If these dead weights could only be 
removed, it seems to us that we should come at 
once into the delight of our being, and also into a 
more desirable way of living. Dissatisfied and mis- 
erable, we bemoan our lot, picturing to ourselves 
how much better it might he^ — thus wasting our pow- 
ers, instead of using them to the best advantage. 
But let us examine this subject from a different 
point of view, — from the interior perceptions of the 
mind, instead of from the exterior vision of outward 
things. 

If we notice carefully those to whom we most 
readily apply for help in times of need, we may 
observe that they are generally those who have 
thoughts and desires similar to our own. If we 
are in trouble of any kind, we are more inclined to 
apply for aid to one who has experienced suffering 
of the same kind than to one who knows nothing 
of it. "Like seeks like" is a common saying. 
The wise enjoy the society of the wise ; while the 
ignorant feel more at ease with the ignorant. The 
pure delight in the presence of the pure ; and the 
evil, in that of the evil. 

There are few, probably, who will not acknowl- 



OUR HELPERS. 35 

edge to themselves, if not to others, that their hves 
are susceptible of improvement. None who are 
striving to live a true life ever attain the perfection 
of their standard. However receptive of the Lord's 
love and wisdom we may become, however much 
we may delight to make them the standard of our 
life, their perfection we can never reach. Each 
mountain-top, attained through valleys of self-renun- 
ciation and humility, only reveals to our vision 
higher summits beyond ; and thus shall there ever 
be something better and higher than the present, 
to invite us onward and upward. 

We need to pray that we mistake not the glitter- 
ing peaks of self-love and self-gratification for the 
sun-illumined summits of heaven ; and in the un- 
folding of our spiritual natures we may come to 
perceive and understand something of the meaning 
contained in the w^ords, ''0/* the increase of his 
government and peace there shall he no end,''' (Is. 
ix. 7.) 

Those who are most similar to ourselves are not 
always able to give us the most effectual help in the 
constant changes of our life which are necessary 
for its regeneration, although we turn to such in its 
most important crises. For, viewing our life from 
the same position^ as it were, which we ourselves 
occupy, it may easily be seen that the influence of 
these wdll tend rather to keep us w^here we are 



36 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

than to urge us to alter our ways of living, as those 
who differ from us do continually. Thus are our 
real helpers very often those who seem to us other- 
wise. While w^e feel but the present pain, our 
Lord know^s the end. 

When we commence a life of regeneration, striv- 
ing to become better day by day, all others who are 
thus striving become our helpers, in a certain sense, 
, whenever we may, in any way, come in contact 
with them, as fellow-travellers make the way seem 
easier and less tedious. But we must not forget that 
even those who are going in an opposite direction 
can help us too by the contrast which they present. 

Those who are about us, however, in our life 
here, are not our only, nor our most competent 
helpers. Our Lord has provided others for us. 

The mention of our Guardian Angels, especially 
those of little children, is not an unusual thing ; yet 
it is often pervaded with an air of mysticism and 
doubt, that makes them appear to us incomprehen- 
sible beings, and their presence is rarely acknowl- 
edged except in some of the most important events 
of our lives. But by the Word of God we are 
told that '' the angel of the Lord encampeth round 
ahout them that fear him^ and deliver eth themy 
(Ps. xxxiv. 7.) And this is not occasional, but 
continual, always; and as we learn what it is "to 
fear Him," fearing to do the evil which would 



OUR HELPERS. 37 

turn us away from Him, we may become conscious 
of those who are present with us spiritually, offer- 
ing their help, which we are at liberty to accept or 
to refuse, for we are left in freedom. We may also 
feel sure of our Lord's providential care in this. 
''-For he shall give his angels charge over thee^ to 
heep thee in all thy ways^^ (Ps. xci. 11,) is a di- 
vine promise. 

But evil influences, as well as good ones, come to 
us from within. Martin Luther's contests with the 
spirits of evil were no vain imaginations, although 
a nature less noble than his could not, under simi- 
lar circumstances, have received power to cope 
with them. Through him a nation was to be set at 
liberty from the shackles of vain delusions. Liflu- 
ences of evil which for centuries had been gaining 
power, through a tacit reception, by the people, of 
false doctrines, were to be met and repulsed. 
God gave the power to a poor monk, through his 
firm determination to know the Truth, and to do 
the Right, that he might accomplish this great 
work; and, with the birth into a state of greater 
spiritual freedom, angelic helpers were permitted a 
nearer approach to men, making their influence 
felt throughout the world by ministries of love. 

The effect of this important change became 
visible in the works of the Reformation, extending 
with power through all succeeding ages. But, like 



88 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

all other great changes relating to the character 
and life of men in this world, the work was first 
spiritual, and then, through human mediums, be- 
came natural. Calvin, Luther, Melancthon, — all 
great moral reformers, whose names are handed 
down from generation to generation, — have been 
such mediums. Each by his inner conflicts and 
victories helping the world to take one step nearer 
to the central Truth. 

In later times, when the spiritual freedom of 
man w^as again threatened by the power of evil, 
gaining access by means of the false teachings rife 
in the world, the Lord prepared another man to 
work for Him. The mission of Swedenborg was 
to oppose existing errors, and, by revealing the ex- 
istence of a spiritual meaning within the literal 
words of the Bible, to give to man a firmer foot- 
hold in spiritual thmgs. For this purpose he was 
permitted, while yet in the flesh, to behold with 
the eyes of his spirit the wonderful things of the 
Spiritual World, and many of the spiritual beings 
associated with man in all his life. The people of 
coming ages shall speak his name with reverence, 
for the Truth revealed from God through him. 
His writings are voluminous, and well known to 
many. In regard to the presence of spiritual com- 
panions with man, he says : " There are with every 
man two spirits from hell, and two angels from 



OUR HELPERS. 39 

heaven, by whom is effected communication with 
both, and w^ho thus also cause man to be in free- 
dom. The reason why there are two is because 
there are two kinds of spirits in hell, and two kinds 
of angels in heaven, to whom correspond the two 
faculties in man, namely, the will and the under- 
standing." QArcana Coelestia^ 5976.) 

"The Lord places man in an equilibrium be- 
tween evil and good, and between falses and truths, 
through evil spirits on the one hand, and through 
angels on the other, in order that man may be in 
freedom." (^Arcana Coelestia^ 6982.) 

There is in our life here abundant opportunity 
for each one to satisfy himself of the truth of this, 
if the attempt be made in a right spirit and from a 
pure motive. 

A careful examination of our thoughts and feel- 
ings, our constantly varying life within, will reveal 
tons our real selves. We may see that sometimes 
we are in a joyous, happy mood, desiring to bless 
all about us with deeds of love flowing out from 
the w^ealth of our gladness ; and sometimes we 
are sad and distrustful, when the real or fancied 
troubles of our own lives close around us like a 
dark cloud, and with their magnified expansion 
shut us selfishly within our own hearts, gloomily 
blind and deaf to all the opportunities given us for 
doing good. Then, in common parlance, we have 
the '^ blues." 



40 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

There are many passages of the Bible referring 
to physical diseases as the outward effect of evil 
influences exerted spiritually from within. 

We are told in the sixteenth chapter of the first 
book of Samuel, that ''Saul was troubled hy an evil 
spirit^'' which made him say and do things that we 
should be likely to attribute to a diseased condi- 
tion. And in the last verse of the chapter we 
read : ''And it came to pass^ when the evil spirit 
from God was upon Saul^ that David took an 
harp^ and played with his hand; so Saul was re- 
freshed^ and was well^ and the evil spirit departed 
from him,'^'^ It was evidently the evil spirit that 
caused his sickness ; and, when it departed, he 
was well. 

Many vexed with devils were brought to Jesus,, 
and by casting out the devils — who were real 
spiritual beings, speaking and acting through 
the bodies of men — He healed those who were 
suffering. 

Has mankind essentially changed since then? 
May not our pains and maladies, physical and 
mental, be the result of evil influences manifested 
in this way, as well as those of olden time ? 

God's laws in relation to both spiritual and phys- 
ical life are universal and eternal. Careful inves- 
tigation may assure us that physical or mental 
disorder of any kind permits the approach of evil 



OUR HELPERS. 41 

spirits, who are ever watching for an opportunity ; 
while, on the other hand, their approach causes 
and increases the disorder. 

Their influence is felt through the thoughts and 
feehngs of evil which they bring to us ; and these, 
if allowed to remain, will make us diabolical like 
themselves. Their intense and burning desire to 
do this may be known by the difficulty w^hich we 
experience in any effort to turn away from them. 
They are tenacious when admittance is once grant- 
ed, and, if we would be saved from the power of 
their influence, our only sure refuge is the Lord. 
If we turn to Him in " the time of trouble," we 
may know from our own experience the truth of 
His words, " When the enemy shall come in like a 
floods the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard 
against him.'''' (Is. lix. 19.) 

The common complaint of irritability and pee- 
vishness among invalids may be traced to this cause. 
But when we can say, with firm confidence, 
''•Behold^ Grod is my salvation; I ivill trusty and 
not he afraid ; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength 
and my song^^^ (Is. xii. 2,) the influence of evil 
spirits can have no power over us. We are then 
deUvered from their oppression. Yet, strange as it 
may seem, we suffer long before coming willingly 
to this condition. When physicians learn to search 
for the spiritual causes of disease, its physical man- 



42 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

ifestations will be much more surely under their 
power to control. 

The departure of evil spirits, which takes place 
only by our own consent and desire, is always a 
signal for the return of angels, who never leave us 
unless compelled to do so by our own choice of evil. 
Good and evil cannot remain together. Either, 
being in power, excludes the other for the time, 
and we ourselves may choose which it shall be. It 
was after the devil left Jesus, that angels came and 
ministered unto Him. 

The presence of angels may become perceptible 
to us by the good and gentle feelings, and true 
and pure thoughts, w^hich come to us from their 
heavenly influence ; and while we make them wel- 
come guests, striving to keep our houses in order, 
barring the entrance against evil, watching and 
praying lest we enter into temptation, they will 
remain our earnest and powerful helpers in our 
search for truth and in our growth in goodness. 

Visions of spiritual beings have been at various 
times permitted to persons in this world, that their 
existence might not be utterly denied. In these 
later days, also, wdien the life in this world has be- 
come so all-engrossing that men and women seem 
to forget that there is any "life beyond" for which 
they should prepare, the startling demonstrations 
of Spiritism induce many to acknowledge the exist- 
ence of the spiritual world and its proximity to this. 



OUR HELPERS. 43 

Open intercourse, however, between the two 
worlds — between men in the world of spirit and 
men in the world of matter — is shown to be in- 
jurious, both by the declaration of those who 
were '' taught of God," and by the deleterious 
effects which follow such intercourse in the present 
day. 

Jesus said to Thomas, ''^Because thou hast seen 
me^ thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have 
not seen^ and yet have believedJ^ (John xx. 29.) 

They who are made the witnesses of such con- 
vincing proofs are, in a measure, compelled to 
believe, like Thomas, when our Lord showed to 
him His hands and His side. But this is a kind 
of blind belief, entertained only because of the 
impossibility of further doubt. 

''A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh af- 
ter a sign^ and there shall no sign be given unto it^ but 
the sign of the prophet Jonas'^ (Matt. xvi. 4.) 

The Word of God has been given unto us ; and 
whenever we accept it as the guide and rule of our 
life, humbly and reverently searching in it for the 
signs which shall satisfy our questionings, confi- 
dently believing it to be a means of communication 
between God and man, revelations of Truth will 
come to us, as we are able to receive them. We 
may then know, from our ow^n experience, how it 
is that they are blessed^ who have not seen^ and yet 
have believed. 



44 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

We may, at such times, feel the presence and 
assistance of angehc helpers so surely that we can 
say, ''It is enough"; wishing for no further sign, 
either visible or audible. Feeling assured of the 
constant power influencing our lives through spirit- 
ual associations, we may come to a knowledge of 
the importance of choosing carefully the good, and 
refusing the evil with firmness and vigilance. 

It is not only in the greatest trials of our life 
that we especially need the aid of our angel help- 
ers. In our every-day life it is just as necessary. 
The petty annoyances and vexations that come to 
us daily are so many opportunities given in which 
we may choose or refuse the help which they al- 
ways offer. 

The first emotion felt, when anything troubles 
us, is often one of impatience, or even of anger. 
This is through the influence of evil spirits, as is 
also the desire to yield to it ; and whenever we do 
yield, their nearer approach fills us with hateful 
thoughts and feelings like their own. The angels, 
however, whose departure must take place at the 
near approach of evil, never leave without some 
suggestion of good, although it may be unheeded. 

How often is an angry or impatient word checked 
by some sudden thought of its error ! Or perhaps 
the remembrance of some words of the Bible flashes 
to our minds, and the harsh feeling is subdued. 



OUR HELPERS. 45 

This is through the influence of our angel helpers ; 
and we have only to choose it, that it may be al- 
ways ours. 

The suggestions of evil come first, or perhaps it 
may be more correct to say that they are first 
consciously perceived, because there is generally 
something in us which favors them. When we 
turn willingly from them, they are gradually with- 
drawn. 

We are, therefore, never entirely alone, although 
it may often seem otherwise to us ; for companions 
invisible to our external sight are always present, 
and they are also of our own choice, although we 
may be ignorant of this. We may become con- 
scious of their presence, as we are sometimes 
conscious of the presence of another person in 
the darkness, without the proofs of external sight 
or sound. 

Spirit and matter, the two essential elements 
uniting to form the life of every human creature, 
are equally necessary to each other, although sel- 
dom, if ever, equally developed. They whose 
character and thoughts serve only the material part 
of their nature may not discern the things of the 
spirit, or be at all able to understand the experiences 
of those who do see. But are they any the less 
real to the trusting ones, whose eyes are opened, 
through humble efforts to do the right? The 



46 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

words of Jesus may still explain the difference: 
'' That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that 

which is born of the Spirit is spirit The wind 

bloweth where it listeth^ and thou hearest the sound 
thereof^ but canst not tell whence it cometh and 
whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the 
Spirit.'^'' (John iii. 6 - 8.) 

The apostle Paul, with a keen perception of these 
things, wrote to the church at Corinth : " Now we 
have received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God. Which 
things also we speak, not in the words which man's 
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teach- 
eth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 
the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritu- 
ally discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 12 - 14.) 

While we remain in our dwellings of flesh, let us 
try to remember continually that these are only 
temporary, and that our life in this w^orld is only 
a preparation for another life in a permanent home, 
which shall be good and beautiful, or evil and mis- 
erable, just as we build it from our life here. Al- 
though spirits of evil may present themselves to us 
in the garb of goodness, w^e should pray to our 
Father in heaven, that He will discover to us their 



OUR HELPERS. 47 

deceit, and assist us to choose for our helpers only 
such as will aid us in the best manner to discern 
and accept the good and the true, and to reject the 
evil and the false, that our way may be upward and 
onward forever. 



TEMPTATIONS. 

"Lead ns not into temptation, but deliver ns from evil." — Matt. 
vi. 13. 

THEY who have endured spiritual temptations, 
which assail when the evil desires of the heart 
urge, from within, to yield to some external gratifi- 
cation which is known to be wrong, know the 
anxiety, distress, even despair, attendant upon 
them. They also know that such states of feeling 
should be attributed to the presence and influence 
of evil spirits, who endeavor, with the most malig- 
nant and deceitful arts, to bind all in their servi- 
tude. 

Merely external men cannot experience spirit- 
ual temptations ; for with such the affections and 
thoughts are so entirely engrossed with sensual 
things, that they are not conscious of the influences 
about them, and make no opposition to evil, except 
so far as they are prevented from yielding to it by 
external restraints. 

That man is born with tendencies to evil of 
every kind may become evident to any one who, 
by the light of Divine Truth, faithfully examines 
the motives of his own life. Evil influences could 



TEMPTATIONS. 49 

exert no power over us, if there were within us no 
love for the evil ; and this is what we have to con- 
tend with. Evil does not originate with us, but we 
make it our own, by its acceptance, when presented 
through the influence of others. 

While the love of evil, in any particular form, is 
permitted to remain quiescent, we may be ignorant 
of its existence in ourselves ; but when, by external 
circumstances, that affection for evil is excited, evil 
spirits, filled with a corresponding desire, find easy 
access to us ; and, by their near approach, com- 
municate their own burning lusts and false reason- 
ings in such a manner that we believe them our 
own. 

Of ourselves, we have not the least power to re- 
sist their insidious arts ; and, were it not for goods 
and truths from the Lord, brought to our thought by 
angels, we should yield to evil without a struggle. 

The Lord has all power in heaven and upon 
earth. While He made Himself visible in this 
world, those who were possessed with devils went 
to Him, and He healed them. We also may go 
to Him, and, casting ourselves at His feet in all 
humility, have full assurance that He will deliver 
us from all our spiritual enemies. And, though 
they rend us sorely, we shall still be able to say, 
'' Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

3 D 



60 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

When Jesus was tempted of the devil, He 
answered only with passages from the Word ; and 
so may we, following His divine example, make His 
truth our shield and huckler. He had "fasted forty 
days and forty nights, and was an hungered," (Matt, 
iv. 2,) when the tempter came to Him. When 
we are in spiritual need, we should be especially 
vigilant, remembering His admonition, ^^Watch ye 
and pray ^ lest ye enter into temptation,''^ (Mark xiv. 
38.) For in such conditions we are especially lia- 
ble to mistake evil for good. 

States of temptation correspond with the " six 
days of labor" in external life ; and they are neces- 
sary, that we may become able to enjoy the Sabbath 
of rest, into which all may come, after conflicts with 
evil. The command, "Six days shalt thou lahor^ 
and do all thy worh^"" should be as carefully obeyed 
as the requirement to rest on the seventh day. A 
better understanding of the spiritual meaning con- 
veyed by this command will help us to perceive 
how it is that states of spiritual conflict and rest are 
typified by outward labor and rest. 

In these states of conflict, the evil tendencies of 
our human nature are often shown to us in such 
a manner that we are appalled by the revelation, 
and shrink from the acknowledgment of its truth. 
Then, in the humility of utter self-abasement may 
we find our only strength in the prayer of the pub- 



TEMPTATIONS. 51 

lican, ^^Grod he merciful to me a sinner ^ (Luke 
xviii. 13.) 

Our Lord Himself endured, in the flesh of His 
Humanity, all temptations that can possibly come 
to man, although, in the literal description of them, 
they are comprised under a few general heads. It 
may be seen, in a very general way, that the temp- 
tation, "if thou he the Son of Grod^ command that 
these stones he made hread^'' (Matt. iv. 3,) included 
all possible temptations that may .induce man to 
place dependence for spiritual nourishment and 
strength anywhere but on the one Lifinite Lord, 
whose Divine command is, '^Thou shalt have none 
other gods hefore me^ (Deut. v. 7.) And so do 
His other temptations comprise, in their spiritual 
sense, all to which man can be subject. For thus 
did He obtain all power in earthy as in heaven. By 
enduring and overcoming all temptations, could He 
alone obtain power to approach and aid man in 
similar conditions. Shall we doubt His ability and 
readiness to "deliver us from evil," whenever we 
will receive the assistance which He offers ? 

Evil must be seen and acknowledo-ed before it 
can be removed ; but the love of our Father sur- 
rounds us as a protection, even in our despair. We 
have only to acknowledge our entire dependence 
upon Him, to asl^^ and we shall receive strength 
for all our need. 



52 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

^^For thou hast been a strength to the poor^ a 
strength to the needy in his distress^ a refuge from 
the storm^ a shadow from the heat^ when the blast 
of the terrible ones is as a storm against the walV^ 
(Is. XXV. 4.) 



REST. 

" And the land had rest forty years." — Judges v. 31 

WHEN the Israelites were led by Moses out 
of Egypt, they did not come at once to the 
land of Canaan. Their wanderings in the wilder- 
ness, and their struggles with enemies on every 
side, were long and wearisome, although they were 
continually advancing toward the '*^ promised land." 

Their warfare, however, was not without cessa- 
tion. After a long contest with some particular 
foe, the victory was gained because the Lord was 
on their side ; and we are told, that '' the land had 
rest forty years^^ (Judges v. 81); and yet "they 
remembered not the Lord their Grod^ who had de- 
livered them out of the hands of all their enemies on 
every side, — but did evil in the sight of the Lord^ 
and for gat the Lord their Grod^ 

The history of the children of Israel is a repre- 
sentative of the inner life of each individual man, 
who, by regeneration, comes spiritually to the land 
of Canaan, which is that state or condition of life 
in which love to the Lord and charity for our 
neighbor is the supreme and ruling motive. But 



54 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

this work of regeneration cannot be accomplished 
at once, or by a single effort. 

All are, at first, in the state to which the land of 
Egypt corresponds, — a state in which the affections 
and thoughts are engrossed by the things relating 
to external life, — scientific and sensual things. 
Jesus was carried down into the land of Egypt 
at a very early period of His life in this world, 
that this might represent the natural tendency of 
all men to come at first into such a state, regarding 
the things of outward life as all-important. But 
He was afterwards brought into Galilee, and " dwelt 
in a eity ealled Nazareth^ that it might he fulfilled 
which was declared hy the prophets^ that He should 
he called a Nazarene^^ (Matt. ii. 23,) thus repre- 
senting an advancement to a more spiritual con- 
dition of life. 

Although by an acknowledgment of Divine Truth 
we may be led out of this external condition to 
follow more carefully the Divine teachings, yet it is 
only very gradually that we come into a more in- 
terior life. Evils and falses, our spiritual enemies, 
rise up in our way, and must be conquered, that we 
may advance. 

The warfare of the Israelites was both offensive 
and defensive ; and so is our spiritual warfare. 
When evil tendencies are made manifest to us, 
which are at once acknowledged as wrong, we 



REST. 55 

may, trusting in the strength of the Lord, attack 
and conquer them. Often, however, evil assails 
us hke the host of an enemy coming upon us 
stealthily in darkness ; and before we can be led 
to acknowledge it wrong, we may be overwhelmed 
by its power. But even then is the Lord our de- 
fence, ^^ive shall not he greatly moved^^^ (Ps. Ixii. 2,) 
for He will surely deliver us from the hand of all 
our enemies. And after each conflict we shall 
have seasons of rest, as " the land had rest forty 
yearsP (Judges iii. 11.) 

After Jesus had been tempted by the devil, 
" angels came and ministered unto him^"^ and we 
may become conscious of the presence of angels 
with us by the peaceful feeling of quietness and 
rest that comes to us after the turmoil of con- 
flict. 

The serenity of these states is not easily disturbed 
by the perplexities of external circumstances which 
may surround us. Our trust in the Divine Provi- 
dence is strengthened, and our charity for others 
enlarged. The joy of heaven, the love of doing 
good, seems to thrill our whole being with delight, 
and w^e wonder that we should ever yield to doubt 
and despair. But angelic influences are not always 
consciously perceptible to us, although they are 
never withdrawn except as w^e reject them. We 
forget the Lord our Gtod^ and do evil in his sights 



56 ^ LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

when we relapse into former states of selfishness I 
and of such conditions Jesus said, '' No man having 
put his hand to the plough^ and looking hack^ is fit 
for the kingdom of Grod.''^ (Luke ix. 62.) Other 
influences then come to us by our own invitation, 
which make us unhappy and miserable. 

Thus through the toils and dangers of our jour- 
ney through the wilderness are we cheered by 
seasons of rest, and again disturbed and discouraged 
by the power of our enemies ; but it is written for 
our comfort, ''Blessed is the man luhose strength is 
in thee ; in whose heart are the ways of them ; who, 
passing through the valley of Baca^ make it a well : 
the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength 
to strength^ every one of them in Zion appeareth be- 
fore G-od:' (Ps. Ixxxiv. 5-7.) 



PATIENCE. 

"I waited patiently for the Lord; and lie inclined unto me, ana 
heard my cry." — Psalm xl. 1. 

OUR life in this world, and all the various cir- 
cumstances connected with it, are a series of 
opportunities arranged for us by the Divine Provi- 
dence of the Lord, and given with the tenderest 
love as the best assistance for each one in the life 
of regeneration. 

Our severest trials are those in which we are re- 
quired to relinquish something to which our affec- 
tion clings tenaciously ; and, the more unwillingly 
this is done, the more must we suffer. Then comes 
the question. Why is it so ? 

Our Lord in His infinite mercy would give to 
all His children greater blessings than they know 
how to desire for themselves. He would help 
us, in the very best manner, to reject every love 
for evil, that we may receive goodness and truth 
from Him, and thus grow into His '' image and 
likeness." Were every desire, however, imme- 
diately gratified, all efforts for a higher condi- 
tion of life would cease, and we should remain 
satisfied in ourselves without advancement. But 

3* 



58 LESSONS PEOM DAILY LIFE. 

"He leadeth" each one ''in the paths of righte- 
ousness." 

We learn, as children, among the first maxims, 
that '' Order is Heaven's first law"; and as we ob- 
serve more interiorly the way in which the Lord 
performs all His works, we shall acknowledge that 
it is always according to His own established laws 
of order. We shall perceive, also, that all perma- 
nent changes come by gradual growth into them ; 
and, keeping these things in our thought, it will be 
easier for us to have patience with ourselves and 
with others. 

Great sorrows and trials require strength and for- 
titude, and an unwavering trust in the Divine Prov- 
idence of our Lord ; but the petty persecutions of 
daily life require patience. 

Our Lord Jesus tells His disciples of the trials 
that shall come to them : '' And ye shall he hetrayed 
both hy parents^ and hrethren^ and kinsfolks^ and 
friends ; and some of you shall they cause to he put 
to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my 
name^s sake. But there shall not an hair of your 
head perish. In your patience possess ye your 
sotds,^^ (Luke xxi. 16-19.) 

The persecutions here alluded to, although not 
literally fulfilled to each individual disciple, are 
nevertheless an external representation of the spir- 
itual persecutions which assail every regenerating 



PATIENCE. 59 

soul. No sooner is the work of reformation com- 
menced, than the evil desires and false thoughts 
favored by our perverted nature arise to oppose 
our progress, and we learn that " a man^s foes 
are they of his own household!''^ (Matt. x. 36.) 

In those states which we come into, when, in our 
troubles and vexations, we cannot '' hope for better 
things," when the darkness of night gathers 
about us spiritually, if we strive to possess our 
souls in patience, trusting that the Lord will, in 
ways unknown to us, accomplish all that is right, 
patiently waiting for the morning, we shall not wait 
in vain. For, even before the light of morning, 
there will come to our spiritual vision, like a Star in 
the East, a perception of the more interior states 
of life into which these trials shall lead us ; and the 
star shall go before us as a guide, until we come to 
the contemplation of the life of our Lord, compar- 
ing our own lives with His as our perfect standard. 

His life in this world was the most perfect pat- 
tern of patience and gentleness. Although taunted 
and spit upon, jeered and scoffed at by the vilest 
men. He answered not, and prayed that they might 
be forgiven. Do we follow His example, remember- 
ing His words? — '' TAe disciple is not above his 
master^ nor the servant above his lord. It is enough 
for the disciple that he be as his master^ and the ser- 
vant as his lord. If they have called the master of 



60 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

the house Beelzeluh^ how much more shall they call 
them of his household?'' (Matt. x. 24, 25.) 

When Jesus explained to His disciples the para- 
ble of the sower, which He had given to the peo- 
ple, He said, '' That on the good ground are they 
which^ in an honest and good hearty having heard 
the word^ keep it, and hring forth fruit with pa- 
tience.'' (Luke viii. 15.) Although we may re- 
ceive the truth gladly, when presented, temptation 
often comes to us when w^e are least watchful ; and, 
neglecting to "bring forth fruit with patience," we 
give ourselves cause for bitter self-reproaches. Ev- 
ery failure, however, shall be an earnest of future 
success, if it only discovers to us some evil tendency 
which should be relinquished, that by true repent- 
ance we may make each one a stepping-stone, in- 
stead of a stumbling-block, in the life's journey. 

" In your patience possess ye your souls." (Luke 
xxi. 19. 



GEOWTH. 

Growth is not a sudden transition from one condition to another, 
but a gradual development of interior principles in outward manifes- 
tations 

WHEN we plant our flower-seeds in the spring, 
we do not look in one day for the green 
leaves which shall arise from them ; nor do we ex- 
pect to see a blossom as soon as the tiny blade ap- 
pears above the ground. We have learned some- 
thing of the laws that govern these things, and 
know that the best thing for us to do, having sown 
the seed in a suitable place, is to wait patiently, 
assured that it will spring up in due time. The 
farmer plants his corn, and, although carefully 
watchful of its progress, leaves it to busy himself 
with other things, knowing that he must wait until 
the harvest-time for the crop which he expects. 

We do not expect, or wish, to see little children 
with the stature and demeanor of men and women, 
because we know that physical growth and devel- 
opment require years of patient care and culture. 
As we come to understand more fully the laws that 
govern all material growth, we shall be better able 
to perceive the laws of spiritual growth, which are 



62 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

as their soul; and lessons will come to us in our 
daily life, teaching us to wait more patiently for the 
things we may desire. 

When the good seed^ which is the Word of God, 
is sown, we are not always w^ilHng to give it time 
to grow. We look to see it spring up immediately, 
and are disappointed. Sometimes, in our eagerness 
to know its progress, like little children, we dig it 
up, to see if it is growing. 

We know for ourselves, that when truth comes 
to us, it is not immediately made manifest in our 
life, although we may receive it gladly. As it first 
comes to our reception, it is concealed from exter- 
nal vision, and remains for a while hidden, like seed 
planted in the ground ; but, like seed, it grows ; 
and if we remember our Lord's words, " Except a 
corn of wheat fall into the ground^ and die^ it abid- 
eth alone; but, if it die, it bring eth forth much fruit ^^^ 
(John xii. 24,) we may perceive how " the corn of 
w^heat" is a representative of the truth which is 
received into our lives, and made good by living it, 
and how the growth of one corresponds with that 
of the other, — '' First the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear.'^'' (Mark iv. 28.) 

When our Lord came into this world, He did not 
at once assume the glorified Humanity which was 
necessary for the salvation of men ; but, com- 
mencing at the very beginning of human life, as a 



GROWTH. 63 

little infant, with undeveloped faculties. He gradu- 
ally perfected His human nature, by successive 
changes, according to His own laws of growth, and, 
entering in with His Divinity, made it all divine. 
Into every regenerating life our Lord is born, and 
with its growth advances more and more to the 
stature of perfect Divine Man. The God that we 
first consciously worship does not, to us, appear 
the same after years of discipline and growth, al- 
though it is w^ith difficulty that we can realize this 
change to be only the result of our own growth. 
His life comes down to earth continually, keeping 
pace with the growth of each individual soul, draw- 
ing it upward and onward ; for His words are, 
'' I^ if I he lifted up from the earthy will draw all 
unto meP (John xii. 82.) 

Thus is He ever with us. And as we grow to 
the need and the better understanding of His words, 
they come to us with new life and power, that, fol- 
lowing His example, we may receive them, not only 
into our thought, but into our lives also. 

When first we attend to the teaching of our 
Lord, how often are brought to our notice the 
words, '' Except a man he horn again^ he cannot see 
the kingdom of Grod.^^ (John iii. 3.) And, as we 
learn to listen, other words come to us, amid our 
daily toils, — words of comfort and encouragement, 
— " Come unto me^ all ye that lahor and are heavy 
laden^ and I will give you rest.^^ (Matt. xi. 28.) 



64 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

In all our intercourse with others, His gentle 
admonitions are ever given : '^ Judge not^ that ye he 
not judged " (Matt. vii. 1) ; '^ Forgive^ and ye shall 
he forgiven " (Luke vi. 37) ; "All things whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you^ do ye even so to 
them^^ (Matt. vii. 12). And although the sugges- 
tions of evil in our own natures would turn us from 
Him, even repeating, with the burning hatred of 
old, the cruel cry, '' Crucify him ! "yet '^for all this 
Ms anger is not turned away^ hut his hand is 
stretched out still^^^ (Isa. v. 25,) offering to us the 
aid of His almighty strength, which we have only 
to accept by turning ourselves continually away 
from evil. Thus only can we grow in the right 
way, and come into more interior states of life, in 
which the words of our Lord shall come to us, 
revealing lessons of spiritual truth before un- 
known. 

" And Twill pray the Father^ and he shall give 
you another Comforter^ that he may ahide with you 
forever^ — even the Spirit of truth^ whom the world 
cannot receive^ hecause it seeth him not^ neither know- 
eth him ; hut ye know him^ for he dwelleth with you^ 
and shall he in you.^'^ (John xiv. 16, 17.) 



LEARNING AND TEACHING. 

" And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in dne season we shall 
reap, if we faint not. As we have, therefore, opportnnity, let us do 
good unto all." — Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ. 

EVERY one who gives any thought to the sub- 
ject probably acknowledges to himself that he 
is a scholar in the great school of the World ; that 
in living he is learning, and that in learning the 
daily lessons of life he is making progress. But 
that we are all teachers, as well as scholars, may not 
be as easily seen or acknowledged. 

In the creation and preparation of man for a life 
of spiritual capacity, the first visible operation is the 
formation of a physical body ; and several years of 
life are generally devoted to learning lessons which 
tend to its development. Then follows a period in 
which the intellectual powers and abilities are more 
especially cultivated and developed by means of 
books (which are only the crystallized thoughts of 
others), and the help of those who are farther ad- 
vanced. After this there comes for each one that 
discipline which is called the ^' labor of life," — those 
tasks that lead us to use, in our daily life, the les- 
sons of truth previously learned^ 



66 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

m 

Those who aim for nothing higher than physical 
development seldom make much progress in intel- 
lectual knowledge ; and those who remain satisfied 
with the accumulation of knowledge, simply for 
the sake of knowing, do not make much effort to 
use it. 

All who belong to these two classes develop only 
the lower parts of their nature, covering, conceal- 
ing, and smothering the spiritual life within, pre- 
venting its healthy development by allowing the 
outside, external life to crush it. To such the les- 
sons of life are disappointment and sorrow, labor 
and vexation ; while to those who really and ear- 
nestly commence a work of regeneration in their 
development, all the lessons of life have a deeper 
meaning, bringing with them the conviction that 
the evil to be condemned and shunned is in them- 
selves. 

These, passing through the two former condi- 
tions, come to the third, — making the one aim of 
life to use for the benefit of others all knowledge 
previously obtained. With those in the former 
conditions the pursuits and pleasures of this earth- 
life are all-important, and the life within is disre- 
garded and often forgotten ; while to those who 
come to the latter condition, the inner life of the 
spirit is all-important, and the outer life is only its 
manifestation. Thus is there accomplished in us a 



LEARNING AND TEACHING. 67 

fulfilment of the words spoken by our Lord Jesus 
Christ, " Many that are first shall he last^ and the 
last shall be first.'' (Matt. xix. 30.) 

Much has been said and written of human in- 
fluence, and all may know from experience the 
power of other lives over their own, and the les- 
sons learned from them. We do not always, how- 
ever, think what lesson is conveyed to others by 
our own lives. As each one lives his own life, and 
no two are, or ever can be, the same, each may 
learn from all, and may in his turn be a teacher for 
all with whom he comes in contact, displaying to 
every observer the regenerating effects of goodness 
or the corruption of evil. None are so humble, 
none so far removed from others, that there is no 
part for them in this important work. 

If teaching be a part of our daily labor, it is cer- 
tainly for our advantage, as well as for the benefit 
of those who learn, that we endeavor to learn and 
use the best ways of communicating to others the 
knowledge we may possess. 

Our dress, our language, even our manner of 
walking, declare to an observant eye more truth- 
fully our real selves than we are accustomed to 
acknowledge ; and, as we become more fully con- 
scious of this, we should endeavor to make our outer 
life more truly an exponent of the spiritual life 
within, '' watching and praying" continually, that 



68 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

good may conquer our evil propensities ; and 
although, because of our human nature, we shall 
sometimes fall, we may at least keep our '' lights 
burning" by seeking help and strength from our 
Lord. Forgetting to do this, and trusting in our 
own strength, we can do nothing. 

We may learn the best ways of teaching others 
by noticing how the Lord teaches us, and by fol- 
lowing His methods of teaching. His truth is pre- 
sented to us in various ways : in His works, which 
are the manifestation of His divine life ; in His 
Word, which is the manifestation of His divine 
wisdom, and in the manifestations of His divine 
love as they come to us through others ; yet we are 
left in perfect freedom to receive or to reject the 
precious lessons, as we will. 

The happiness and satisfaction of life attending 
the observance of God's commandments is simply 
the consequence always following obedience ; and 
the unhappiness and misery attending a life of sin 
is not punishment inflicted by an offended God, but 
the consequence of disregard and disobedience. 

It may sometimes appear strange to us that evil 
men should be allowed to carry out their designs 
and gratify their desires, while those who are ear- 
nestly striving for goodness are so often overwhelmed 
with disappointments and sorrow ; but if we remem- 
ber that the Lord is constantly leading each one of 



LEARNING AND TEACHING. 69 

His creatures towards the highest happiness of 
which he is capable, and teaching him with lessons 
best suited for his reception, we may become able 
to understand how, to the heart hardened by sin, 
external troubles would bring only feelings of re- 
sentment and anger, — thus making its condition 
worse, rather than better, — and how mercifully our 
Heavenly Father sends affliction and sorrow to those 
only who will be made better by it. ^^ Whoso is 
wise^ and will observe these things, even they shall 
understand the loving-kindness of the Lord^ (Ps. 
cvii. 43.) Let us remember the admonition given 
in the thirty-seventh Psalm: ^^ Fret not thyself he- 
cause of evil-doers^ neither he thou envious against 
the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon he cut 
doivn like the grass^ and wither as the green herb. 
Trust in the Lord^ ajid do good; so shalt thou dwell 
in the land^ and verily thou shalt he fed.^'' (Ver- 
ses 1, 2, 3.) 

We are allowed to do our own way, not, how- 
ever, without reminders of something better, until 
by the suffering which follows the wrong we are led 
to seek some other way ; and, if we seek with true 
humility, the words of our Lord are always veri- 
fied, ^^ Se that seeketh findeth.'^^ (Matt. vii. 8.) 
Thus are we left in freedom to accept or to refuse, 
while the Lord's influence for good is never with- 
drawn from us, although we may persistently turn 
away and choose evil. 



70 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

By careful consideration of these things, we may 
receive much valuable instruction in regard to the 
best methods of teaching others ; and however diffi- 
cult it may appear to us to make use of it in our 
daily life, we may at least make an effort to turn 
in the right direction, remembering the words spo- 
ken by Him who "spake as never man spake," 
" If ye hnow these things^ happy are ye if ye do 
themJ^ (John xiii. 17.) 



CLOUDS. 

" Earth is "but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to each other like, more than on earth is thought." 

THE beautiful, dreamy clouds, floating over our 
heads, in their various forms of beauty, — what 
lesson can we learn from them for our spiritual 
life ? 

The place of clouds is between the earth and its 
heavens, hovering, in ever-varying size and shape, 
above our heads, below the vast expanse of blue, 
apparently so far away, — sometimes rolling their 
milky thunder-heads in fleecy masses above the hills 
in the horizon, sometimes floating like a silvery veil 
transparent for " the glory beyond," and sometimes 
coA^ering the whole sky with a leaden hue, shutting 
from us the sunlight and our joy. 

In the midst, between our outer and inner life, 
the spiritual clouds are our thoughts, coming and 
going, coming and going, sometimes in confused 
masses, sometimes in single distinctness, sometimes 
covering all our mental sky with darkness, but re- 
maining only so long as we permit them. When 
we look up to our heaven within, they £ome float- 
ing between, giving to it their form and coloring; 



72 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

and even when we look up to our Lord, whose 
throne is in heaven, we often find it difficult to keep 
them entirely away. 

In those conditions of our spiritual life to which 
the bright and sunny days here correspond, our 
thoughts, like the clouds, are translucent, and shin- 
ing with the light of truth from the Lord, our spir- 
itual Sun ; and when there cbme to us revelations 
of His divine love and wisdom, they are, in our 
thought, like the clouds of morning and evening, 
crimson with the warm love of goodness, and gold- 
en with the wisdom of truth. But when we neglect 
to '' watch and pray " continually, thus yielding to 
the influence of evil, our thoughts are like those 
dark clouds which bring storm and tempest, wrap-* 
ping us in a gloom that shuts out the light of heav- 
en, although we know that the sun is always shining 
beyond. 

We talk of " the cloudy days in life," and all may 
know that those conditions are referred to, in which 
gloomy and despondent thoughts, induced appar- 
ently by outward circumstances, but really by the 
suggestion of evil within, close, like clouds, over 
our heaven, obscuring all our mental vision of 
God's providence and tender love and care ; and 
sometimes we seem shut in by them to despair. 
But if there be in our heart any love for the Lord, 
any desire to do His will, His tender mercy always 



CLOUDS. 73 

finds some way to reach it, and rouse it from its 
lethargy. Words of sympathy and kindness, a 
book, or the influence of one who has learned, by 
lessons of sorrow, how best to assist others, may 
help us to turn, and look up to the Lord, believing 
that He, as the Sun of Righteousness, still shines be- 
yond the clouds; and we never look thus in vain. 
His blessed rays illumine our darkness, and our 
thoughts are made radiant by the light of His 
divine truth. The holy words of His revelation 
come to us with new power, revealing to our per- 
ception something of their " hidden treasure " ; and 
as our thought is filled with their comforting assur- 
ances of truth, we can say, with some perception of 
its meaning, and wondering at our former obscurity, 
''" The entrance of thy words giveth light ; it giveth 
understanding to the simple. (Ps. cxix. 130.) 

Rain descends from the clouds, reminding us of 
the blessing that often comes to us through good 
and pure thoughts, refreshing and strengthening all 
our life, while the influence of evil thoughts is like 
the torrents and floods that destroy. 

When, by resisting and putting away evil from 
our thoughts and life, we come into states of humil- 
ity and trust in the Lord's divine providence, His 
word shall become, for each one of us, '' a pillar of 
cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night," by its 
manifestation in our thought ; and the truth, in the 

4 



74 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

spiritual sense, will be like the sunlight shining 
through the clouds, — glorious, though veiled. And 
then may we see '' the Son of Man coming in the 
clouds of heaven^ with poiver and great glory " 
(Matt. xxiv. 30) ; for it is in the clouds of our OAvn 
thoughts that we receive Him ; and thus He becomes 
manifest to us by our reception of Him. 

As our lives become more fully regenerated, our 
thoughts will be more constantly formed to the words 
given us in the Bible, — God's Word, — the external 
covering of Divine Truth ; and, what is remarkable, 
each one may find in them something suited to 
every occasion of daily life, whatsoever it may be. 
Thus may they become the clouds of our heaven. 
In every aspiration of our life, the blessed words 
will come to us, as the best expression for our 
thought, "Bless the Lord^ Omy soul^ and forget not 
all his benefits^'' (Ps. ciii. 2); and when the self- 
consciousness of our spiritual possessions would 
make us proud, we may put away the feeling with the 
thought, " Not unto us^ Lord^ not unto us^ hut 
ujito thy name^ give glory ^ for thy mercy ^ and for 
thy truth's sake. (Ps. cxv. 1.) 



MONEY. 

" He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; 
and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. If therefore 
ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will com- 
mit to your trust the true [riches] ? " — Luke xvi. 10, 11. 

WE cannot live in this world without money, 
or its representative ; for by means of it 
we obtain all the necessities and all the luxuries of 
life. The desire for it stimulates us in our daily 
labors, and the want of it is the cause of much suf- 
fering. 

For our spiritual life, we must have truth. We 
cannot live without it, or some representative of it ; 
and all that we receive into our understandings, as 
our own, may serve us as money, by means of which 
we may obtain more. 

The children of Israel, whose history is given in 
the Bible, were a representative people ; and all the 
rites and ceremonies of their worship were repre- 
sentative, because they could not rightly use the 
truth itself, had it been revealed to them. Many 
are even now in a similar condition, sunk to such 
degradation, by yielding to the evil inclinations of 
their nature, that they would use even God's trutli 
for their own selfish purposes, and, changing it, would 



76 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

make it a lie. Truth in its purity is, therefore, kept 
from them, with the tenderest mercy, and they 
have only such representatives of it as they can 
receive. 

Our Lord teaches in the Parable of the Tal- 
ents (Matt. XXV. 14-30) how we should use the 
truth intrusted to us : " For unto every one that 
hath shall he given^ and he shall have abundance; 
hut from him that hath not shall he taken away even 
that which he hath^ (ver. 29.) 

For money we must labor ; that which comes to 
us without our own exertion is never so truly 
our own; and for truth we must labor also. Al- 
though freely offered to all who will receive it, 
truth cannot abide in, or even enter, the soul that is 
filled with evil in thought and desire ; but the re- 
moval of evil gives entrance to truth, and this is our 
spiritual labor and its recompense. In this way 
may we sell all that we have^ as our Lord commands 
us, relinquishing the evils which belong to ourselves, 
and receiving, in their place, God's truth. 

Gold and silver, of which money is made, are 
the most valuable metals found, and are external 
representatives of Goodness and Truth, — the things 
most valuable for our spiritual life. 

Truths, heaped together in the memory for the 
gratification of our pride in much knowledge are 
like money accumulated with a miserly spirit, — of 



MONEY. 77 

no use, either to ourselves or to others ; but truth 
employed to make our lives more useful to others 
is like money that is acquired, and used with a 
spirit of benevolence. 

Jesus made an example of the poor woman who 
cast two mites into the treasury, because '' she of 
her want did cast m all that she had^ even all her liv- 
ing ^^^ while the rich " did cast in of their abun- 
dance.'' (Mark xii. 44.) 

We must learn to acknowledge, that not only a 
part^ but all^ the truth we may receive, comes from 
the Lord ; and if we truly desire to use it all 
in His service. He will teach us the way to do so ; 
and we shall desire to use our material riches in a 
corresponding way. We should cast them all into 
the treasury, not by giving all the money we possess 
to the church, or for charity, but by endeavoring 
to use them always as means of making our lives 
more useful to others. Thus shall we become pre- 
pared to receive the true riches, which shall be 
'' without money and without price.^' (Isa. Iv. 1.) 



PRAYER. 

"Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time 
is." — -Makk xiii. S3. 

These were the words spoken by the 
Lord Jesus to His disciples ; and through all the 
long years that have come and gone between then 
and now have the words been preserved, and to 
each one of us do they come as a Divine com- 
, mand ; for " what I say unto you^ I say unto all^ 
Watch:' (Mark xii. 37.) 

Then He was making Himself visible, in an out- 
ward form, to the external sight of men, and His 
teachings were given in audible words. His disci- 
ples w^ere those who acknowledged Him to be ''of - 
Grod and from Grod^'' who listened with gladness 
to His teachings while He declared Himself to be 
a manifestation of Jehovah God, and one luith the 
Father^ and who afterwards suffered severe persecu- 
tions, many of them even death, enduring all for 
His name's sake. 

Now He is not visible to our outward vision, nor 
are His teachings given in the same manner as they 
then were ; but His disciples are still those who 



PRAYER. 79 

acknowledge Him their Lord, and listen eagerly for 
His teachings as they come to them in another 
way. 

We are living in a time when the light of God's 
truth is beginning to make bright the dark places 
of the earth, not naturally alone, but spiritually. 
How many are singing, with joyful hearts, 

" The morning light is breaking, 
The darkness disappears." 

The old customs and institutions which have fet- 
tered the freedom of man as a spiritual being are 
gradually passing away, and new ones are taking 
their places. 

Our Lord comes to us as truly to-day as He did 
to His disciples long ago ; but His coming is spir- 
itual, instead of natural. We see its wonderful 
effects in the changes and improvements of the 
world about us ; but only those who are conscious 
of His presence spiritually in the temple of their 
own souls, and on the earth of their own lives, can 
understand and perceive how He comes, and makes 
"all things new." 

We need not pray to Him as a God afar off, for 
His presence is here, even in our midst. 

While we live the life of this world, we are spir- 
itually like those who sleep : our spiritual eyes 
are closed ; our spiritual ears are dull of hearing ; 
and this outer world, with its all-engrossing life, 



80 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

seems to us the only reality that can exist. The 
few who are led, through an interior consciousness 
of something higher, to seek and find, are either 
misunderstood, or their descriptions of heavenly 
things are listened to as in a dream ; but the words 
of the Psalm are, '' I shall he satisfied^ when I awake^ 
with thy likeyiess " (xvii. 15) ; and we need not 
wait until our earthly covering is laid aside for 
this awakening. 

Just as soon as we really and earnestly commence 
the work of regeneration in ourselves ; just as soon 
as we really begin to '' watch and pray," to refuse 
the evil and choose the good, because our Lord 
commands us, do we begin to awake from our spir- 
itual sleep ; and as we learn to become more care- 
fully and constantly obedient to His commands in 
all our life, we shall know, each for ourselves, the 
meaning concealed in the words, '' For since the 
beginning of the world men have not heard^ nor 
perceived hy the ear^ neither hath the eye seen^ 
Grod^ besides thee^ what he hath prepared for him 
that waiteth for him.^^ (Isa. Ixiv. 4.) 

But what is it to " watch and pray " ? How 
can we leave our daily labors to obey the com- 
mand ? 

Jesus said, in the parable, " He that received seed 
among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and 
the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches 



PRAYER. 81 

chohe the word^ and he hecometh unfruitful.'^'' (Matt, 
xlii. 22.) We need to learn to '' watch and pray " 
in our daily labor, not out of it. Vain petitions, 
offered at stated periods, are not really prayer. If 
we ask impossibilities, we shall be disappointed. 
We must learn to live our prayers. 

^' Whatsoever things ye desire^ when ye pray^ 
believe that ye receive^ and ye shall have them," 
(Mark xi. 24,) are the words of our Lord to us ; 
but when we ask things which in our inmost soul 
we cannot believe that we shall receive, we are not 
complying with the conditions of the promise. 
When our belief that '' with Grod all things are 
possible " (Matt. xix. 26) causes us to pray for the 
gratification of our desires and wishes in regard to 
our present life, asking Him to do what our own 
reason, if rightly heeded, declares to be impos- 
sible, when submitted to the laws according to 
which He ahvays performs His works, w^e cannot 
truly believe that we shall receive such things, and 
we cannot receive them. 

The poor little negro child may pray God to 
make his skin white, and doubt if his prayer is 
heard because his desire is not granted. We smile 
at his simple ignorance ; but do not we, with equal 
ignorance, sometimes pray to be saved from suffer- 
ing, forgetting that it is only the consequence of 
something wrong in ourselves, to w^hich our atten- 

4 * F 



82 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

tion should be directed ? When calamities threat- 
en, we pray to God to avert them, forgetting, in 
our fear, that ''all things work together for good 
to them that love God." (Romans viii. 28.) 
^''Deliver us from evil^^^ we pray, and forget or 
neglect to turn from the evil, when temptation 
puts it in our way. 

If we pray to God afar off, we may find it la- 
borious and difficult ; but as we become able to per- 
ceive, as well as to acknowledge, that He is in us 
and about us spiritually now and here, that " in 
Him we live and move, and have our being," 
(Acts xvii. 28,) " Our Father^ who art in the 
heavens ^'^ will be to us the only true way of ad- 
dressing Him. 

In the closet of our own souls, concealed from 
the gaze of those about us, may we constantly com- 
mune with Him, even in the midst of our toils and 
cares ; and the earnest desire of the heart, that we 
m2ij follow Him in all our life, will be a continual 
prayer. 

True prayer is the sincere and earnest desire of 
the heart that God's will may become our will in 
all our life ; and, whatever may be our external sur- 
roundings or condition, the words of this prayer 
will be, '' JVot ivhat I will^ hut what thou wilt^ 
Such prayer is always answered ; and, as we learn 
more about the ways in which the Lord always 



PRAYER. 83 

works, we may also learn to ask only those things 
which will be for our spiritual welfare, and these 
will be possible. 

Every inquiring heart repeats the question, 
" Wherewith shall I come hefore the Lord^ and hoio 
myself hefore the high Giod? Shall I come hefore 
him with hurnt-offerings^ with calves of a year old? 
Will the Lord he pleased with thousands of rams^ 
with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my 
first-horn for my transgression^ the fruit of my 
hody for the sin of my soul? (Micah vi. 6, 7.) 
And the answer is always ready : '' He hath showed 
thee^ man^ what is good ; and what doth the Lord 
require of thee^ hut to do justly^ and to love mercy ^ 
and to walk humhly ivith thy God?''' (ver. 8.) 

When the disciples of our Lord asked to be 
taught how to pray, He gave thein a form of 
words which is infinitely perfect for the expres- 
sion of all human needs. Nothing can be de- 
sired, in a spirit of obedience to the Lord's will, 
which is not included in these divinely given 
words ; and, as our life becomes more interior, 
we shall feel less desire to add to them any ex- 
pressions of our own, seeking, rather, to bring all 
the thoughts and desires of our hearts into agree- 
ment with the spirit of their petitions. 

The simple words, '' Our Father," will help us 
to feel the immediate and constant presence of the 



84 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

Lord ; and whenever, amid our wayward wander- 
ings, we turn ourselves spiritually to Him, the ut- 
terance of these in childhke confidence will awaken 
in us the slumbering consciousness that ^^ He shall 
cover us with his feathers^ and under his wings 
shall we trust.'^^ (Ps. xci. 4.) 

In this state of feeling, when the greatness of 
our Lord, and His infinite and fatherly love for each 
one of His children, is in some degree understood 
and appreciated, we shall be inclined, not only to 
pronounce with our lips the words, '' hallowed be 
thy name^^ but the desire of our hearts will be, 
that in all our life His name may he hallowed^ both 
for ourselves and for others. 

A man's name is that by which he is known to 
others ; and whatever we may know of his charac- 
ter is always brought to our thought by his name. 
The name of a bad man brings at once to our 
thought some of his bad deeds, while the name of a 
good man recalls his goodness to us or to others. 
The name of the Lord is His manifestation of Him- 
self to man, in whatever way it may be, by His 
works or by His Word, or, in a higher sense, by 
His Humanity, in which He came to the world as 
Jesus Christ; and that we may come to a better 
understanding of Sis name^ what it is, and how it 
should be hallowed, we need to pray continually, 
*' Thy kingdom come ; thy will he done^ as in heaven^ 



PKAYER. 85 

SO also upon earth.^^ The truest way of hallowing His 
name is in the effort to make room in our hearts 
w^here the kingdom of His truth may come ; and 
this can only be accomplished by constant vigilance 
on our part, lest thoughts and desires of evil gain 
admittance, — remembering that where evil is good 
cannot dwell. 

As we receive power to do this our part in the 
work of regeneration, the Lord's will may be done 
in the earth of our lives as it is in the heavens. 
Our external life may then correspond with the in- 
ternal life of the spirit, instead of being at variance 
wuth it, as it often is now when we try to conceal 
from others our true thoughts and feelings. 

Our daily hread^ for which w^e are taught to ask, 
includes, besides the food necessary for the main- 
tenance of physical life, all the spiritual food which 
forms the daily and constant sustenance of our spir- 
itual life ; everything good and true w^hich we will- 
ingly and intelligently receive forms a part of our 
spiritual '' daily bread " ; and as food which sustains 
the body must be received, digested, and assimi- 
lated, that it may become a part of the body, increas- 
ing its powers, the food of the spirit must likew^ise 
be received by the understanding and made intelli- 
gible to us, welcomed by the will with an affection 
and desire for it, and used in our life as a part of it. 
Of this bread our Lord says, " / am the hread of 



86 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

life : he that cometh to me shall never hunger ; and he 
that helieveth on me shall never thirst.^^ (John vi. 
35.) And again, " Labor not for the meat that 
perisheth^ but for that meat which endureth unto 
everlasting life."^^ (John vi. 27.) 

If, mindful of all these things expressed by the 
words, we pray "Give us this dag our dailg bread^'' 
they will be for us the best expression of all our 
desires for good things, both for ourselves and for 
others ; for the prayer including all impresses upon 
us the knowledge that our Lord would have us offer 
our petitions to Him with a spirit of charity and 
love for all. "Giive us^^^ we pray; not, Give to me 
alone. 

"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debt- 
ors!''^ 

When we feel the debts of gratitude which we 
owe to our Father in heaven for all the things 
that we enjoy, reverently acknowledging that He 
gives them all, even our life and being, we shall 
want to pray "forgive us our debts," because we 
can never pay them ; but we may strive to remem- 
ber, in all our connection with others, that the lat- 
ter part of the petition is made the condition of our 
forgiveness, " as we forgive our debtor s."^"^ 

When we feel ourselves wronged by word or 
deed of others, the first feeling that comes to us is 
generally one of indignation, and, although often 



PRAYER. 87 

denominated sensitiveness^ even a slight examina- 
tion will reveal to us the selfishness concealed with- 
in it ; some part of our individuality is trespassed 
upon, and we are hurt and offended by it. 

Forgetfulness of self and thought for others, will 
banish all this indignation, leaving in its place only 
sorrow for the blindness of the offender to his own 
spiritual interest, or perhaps the humiliating revela- 
tion that the offence was more imaginary on our 
part than real. We may say with our lips that our 
debtors are forgiven ; but, while this feeling of indig- 
nation is allowed to remain within, our forgiveness 
cannot be real. 

There is no indignation in the forgiveness of our 
Lord for His erring children. Many are the ways 
in which we may learn how truly He " is merciful 
and gracious^ slow to anger and plenteous in 
mercy '^ ; for ''-He hath not dealt with us after our 
sins^ nor reivarded us according to our iniquities " 
(Ps. ciii. 10), and His commandment is, ''Forgive, 
and ye shall he forgiven.^^ (Luke vi. 37.) 

The words of the petition, " Forgive us our 
debts, as we forgive our debtors," cannot truly ex- 
press the desire of the heart while thoughts and 
feelino;s of ano;er towards those who do us wron^r 
find an entrance and an abiding-place there. In 
earnestly striving to put away all such thoughts and 
feehngs, very different emotions may be received in 



88 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

their places, and we may in this way come to the 
acknowledgment that 

" E'en to those who do us wrong 
Does thankfulness in truth belong: 
They teach us to forgive." 

While we cherish in our hearts any feelings ex- 
cept of forgiveness and love for those who do us 
injury, we cannot be in a suitable condition our- 
selves to receive forgiveness from the Lord for our 
own errors. In the one hundred and ninth Psalm 
are the words, " Since he loveth cursing^ let it come 
upon him ; since he delighteth not in blessing^ let it he 
far from himJ^^ A thoughtful consideration of 
their meaning will disclose to every earnest seeker 
for truth, within the apparently vindictive sense of 
the literal words, a desire in accordance with the 
petition, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our 
debtors": for, until we learn to practise forgive- 
ness towards others, we cannot know what the for- 
giveness of our Heavenly Father is, although it is 
freely offered to all. 

'^ Lead us not into temptation^ 

Following the leading of our own natural inclina 
tions, heeding not the voice that calls, '' If any man 
will come after me^ let him deny himself^ and take up 
his cross^ and follow m^," (Matt. xvi. 24,) we go 
astray ; and often do we acknowledge the error of 
our way only when our own feet have led us into 



PRAYER. 89 

snares and pitfalls of misfortune, and our way is 
hedged about by circumstances beyond our control. 
Then, other help failing, our own weakness is dis- 
covered to us, and we pray to the Lord, '' Lead us "; 
feeling that of ourselves we can do nothing, that all 
our power to "live and move and have our being " 
(Acts xvii. 28) is from Him alone. This state of 
feeling should be ours continually, and as our life is 
regenerated we shall be able to make it ours more 
constantly ; and, knowing our utter inability to resist 
and put away evil by our own strength, the remain- 
ing w^ords of the petition will be the best expression 
of our hearts' desire, ^^ Lead us not into tempta- 
tion J''' 

When anything is presented to our consideration 
w^hich w^e know to be wrong, and yet desire to do, 
we call it a temptation. The temptation, however, 
is not the thing itself, but our desire to do it ; for 
the thing itself can be no temptation to us if it 
awaken in us no desire for it. This is, therefore, 
what we have to contend with, — the love and desire 
for evil within our own souls, which draws to it 
evil from w^ithout, making it a temptation, — and 
this is the evil from which we should pray to be 
delivered. 

The accomplishment of this desire can be attained 
only by our own earnest co-operation with the Lord 
in the work of reformation, — '' ceasing to do evil^^^ 



90 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

that we may " learn to do well,^^ (Isa. i. 16.) 
The Lord indeed " worketh in us both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure " (Phil. ii. 13) ; but we 
ourselves are the instruments with which He works, 
and we should yield wilHng obedience, acknowledg- 
ing that all the w411 and the power to do come to 
us from Him alone. Then will our humble, though 
fervent, glorification of Him find no better words 
than these : ''For thine is the kingdom^ the power ^ 
and the glory forever. ^^ 

And for each petition our full assent and desire 
that it may be fulfilled shall be an " amen.^^ 

We have need to learn to make the spirit of this 
prayer ours in deed as well as in word. We do 
not pray, " Grive us this day our daily hread^^ ex- 
pecting it to come to us without effort ; but by 
laboring for it, and attending to its proper prepara- 
tion, we make the prayer ours in deed, and God 
helps us to do it for our physical preservation. But 
neither is it possible for us to receive our spiritual 
bread unless we make an effort to obtain it by 
going to the Bible, — that inexhaustible store-house 
where it may always be found, — and labor for it by 
striving to keep ourselves in a condition to receive 
it gladly, whenever and however it may come 
to us. 

Our Lord Jesus says to each one: "Jls^, and it 
shall he given you; seek, and ye shall find; knocJc, 



PRAYER. 91 

and it shall he opened unto you. For every one 
that asheth^ receiveth ; and he that seeketh find- 
eth; and to him that knocJceth it shall be opened.^^ 
(Luke xi. 9, 10.) 

Three things are given us to do, to ask^ to seek^ 
and to knocks requiring three distinct modes of 
action, and each action must come from a distinct 
motive within. In order to ask, it is necessary to 
know what Ave would ask for, and this belongs to 
the understanding ; that we may seek, there must 
be some desire for the thing sought, and this be- 
longs to the affection or will, which is a more in- 
terior faculty than the understanding ; while to 
knock requires the exercise of both will and under- 
standing. Thus are we admonished to use all the 
faculties given to us, making our life a continual 
prayer for more and better perceptions of the good 
and the true. 

It is true that our Father knows all our needs 
before we ask Him. But He gives to us only as 
we ask, that we may receive willingly and in free- 
dom what He gives. The boundless wealth of His 
love going forth for all His creatures would over- 
whelm us if received in any other way. He with- 
holds nothing from those who desire and ask in a 
true way that they may become the children of 
God. 



THE PSALMS. 



" Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a liglit unto my path." — 
Psalm cxix. 105. 



NO intelligent reader of the Bible can fail to 
notice a special peculiarity in the Psalms, dis- 
tinguishing them from all other parts of the Bible. 
They seem set apart by themselves, belonging en- 
tirely neither to the historical, the prophetical, nor 
the evangelical parts of the Word, although portions 
of them seem to resemble each. 

The most critical examination of the literal words 
can afford no satisfactory evidences why this is so, 
and many satisfy themselves with the explanation 
that the different parts of the Bible were written at 
different periods of time, each receiving the peculiar 
style of the time and the writer. But the times 
and customs of men are the effects of spiritual 
causes, not the causes themselves ; and if the Bible 
is the Word of God, something beyond the mere 
variation in the conditions of men, in this world, 
must be a cause for its variety of style and forms of 
expression. 

We may become convinced of this ; and yet, so 
long as we seek for it in the literal words only, we 



THE PSALMS. 93 

must be disappointed. This is like searching for 
the causes of individual life in the dissection and 
examination of dead bodies ; for although their 
marvellous and delicate organism may excite our 
wonder and admiration, they can be to us nothing 
more than dead bodies, unless the breath of God 
inspires them with life. Then will the living soul 
be seen in and through the covering of the body. 

The living soul of God's Divine Love and Wisdom 
is within His Word, giving its life for " the light of 
the ivorld^^ ; but we, in our blindness to spiritual 
things, do not perceive it; or if, perchance, we do, 
it is but dimly seen ; and when we sometimes feel 
the warm pulses of its great heart-throbs, we know 
not what it is. 

Every sentence, every word, even every letter, 
of this wonderfully inspired book, is a part of the 
external covering of Divine Goodness and Truth, 
and thus its manifestation to men ; as every part 
of the human body is a covering, and also a mani- 
festation of the spirit within. The Lord God is the 
soul of it, for He says : '' In the beginning was the 
Word^ and the Word tvas with Grod^ and the 'Word 
was Grod^'' (John i. 1) ; and whenever we read it 
with a devout and reverent spirit we come near to 
the Lord Himself. 

When w^e can thus acknowledge and perceive 
God Himself to be within His Word, we can more 



94 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

readily understand how it is that in its most interior 
sense it relates to Him alone, and how the Psalms 
especially describe every state through which He 
passed while regenerating and glorifying the Hu- 
manity which He took for Himself in this world, 
and thus made divine. Every regenerating soul 
must, in a finite way, pass through the same or 
similar conditions spiritually, for so we "follow" 
Him ; and in each successive state of an orderly 
regeneration may its true exponent be found Jiere^ 
from the first acknowledgment that the ways of 
truth and goodness are better than the ways of 
error and evil, declared to our thought by the 
words of the first Psalm : " Blessed is the man 
that walheth not in the counsel of the ungodly^ and 
standeth not in the way of sinners^ and sitteth 
not in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is 
in the law of the Lord^ and in his law doth he 
meditate day and night ^^"^ to the glorification of our 
Lord by the consecration to His service of every 
faculty that He has given us, and by the sacred 
dedication to Him of every function of our life ; 
when our heartfelt expression shall be, ''Let every- 
thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye 
the Lord:' (Ps. cl. 6.) 

In order, however, to come fully into this state, 
it is necessary to pass through all the intermediate 
states truly described in the spiritual sense of the 



THE PSALMS. 95 

Psalms, which follow each other in their true 
order. 

We may be able to perceive this more clearly 
by directing our attention to the first and second 
Psalms, where different states of mind are very 
plainly indicated. All the words of the first Psalm 
are expressive of a state which must always be first 
as the commencement of regeneration for each 
soul, — a state in which a true perception of the 
good and the evil in relation to each other, and 
in relation to the Lord, is clearly manifested to our 
thought. The reading of them, in a spirit of sin- 
cerity and humility, is always accompanied by a 
peaceful feeling of assurance and confidence that 
this is the truth ; while immediately following, in 
the first verses of the second Psalm, are expressed 
the doubts and g^uestionings which always arise in 
every regenerating soul when the prevalence and 
power of evil make themselves felt. Nevertheless, 
amid the distracting influences of such doubts and 
fears, the trusting soul may ever turn to the Lord, 
as a magnet to its pole, believing that His Divine 
Providence encircles and controls everything ; and 
although many shall wonder, and say, '' Who will 
show us any goodV^ (Ps. iv. 6,) yet all these shall 
experience how " blessed are all they that put their 
trust in hdnJ^ (Ps. ii. 12.) 

When we consider that many years arc often 



96 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

passed in the all-engrossing life of this outside 
world before arriving at the acknowledgment even 
of the superiority of goodness and truth taught in 
the first Psalm, something of the infinity of the 
Divine Truth which, in the Psalms, expresses the 
various spiritual states and conditions of all men 
may dawn upon us, although its infinitude may 
never be completely grasped by finite compre 
hension. 

Our various states of feeling are expressed to 
our own consciousness by our thoughts ; and to 
others they are manifested by words and actions, 
as may be readily seen by a little careful attention ; 
for when we are annoyed or troubled in any way, 
the impatient feeling often manifests itself in words 
of fretfulness, or by unkind actions ; while joy and 
happiness within generally cause our words and 
deeds to carry happiness to others. 

When our Lord assumed Humanity, and lived in 
this world as a man. His ways of manifesting Him- 
self to others were similar to those of other men, 
while His omnipotent Divinity made each mani- 
festation a perpetual token to all of His continual 
omnipresence. Thus are the Psalms an expression 
of His thoughts, in each and every condition through 
which He passed while glorifying and making di- 
vine His human nature. 

We may find ourselves perplexed by the ques- 



THE PSALMS. 97 

tion : If these things are really so, how could the 
Psalms have been given to men so long before (as 
we have been taught to believe) the Lord himself 
came into the world ? But we must endeavor, in 
our thought of these things, to put aside all idea 
of time, as that belongs only to this world, remem- 
bering that the works of our Lord are not limited 
by time and space as ours are, for He is " the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever." (Heb. xiii. 8.) 
He works in and through the spiritual world, and 
the effects of His works are felt and seen in this 
natural world. Here they may be limited by time ; 
but, in their beginning, they are not. The Psalms 
may therefore refer entirely to the life of our Lord 
in their spiritual sense, and yet have been given to 
man before He came Himself. 

The Psalms were written by David, because, as 
a representative character, he represented the Lord 
who was to come into the world ; and as the King 
of Israel, leading the '^ children of Israel " through 
their many wars with other nations, he exhibited, 
in external forms, a representation of the life of the 
Lord in this world, and His conflicts with all evil, 
that all who may spiritually come into the inherit- 
ance of the children of Israel may be delivered 
from the dominion of the powers of evil by follow- 
ing and obeying their Divine Leader. Psalms, or 
songs, are expressions of various states of feeling ; 

5 G 



98 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

and the Psalms of David express, by their title, 
what they really are, — a manifestation, in words 
intelligible to all, of the thoughts of our Lord^ in 
His human nature, while He was performing the 
work of making it divine. 

We may notice, in the progress of regeneration, 
that there are times in which some particular psalm 
seems to give us more satisfaction than any other ; 
and very often the repetition of its words will bring 
to us a feeling of security and peace, even in the 
midst of outward perplexity, while, at other times, 
the same words may be less effectual, and those of 
some other psalm more so. The reason of this may 
become evident, as we come to perceive and to ac- 
knowledge that there is certainly a connected spirit- 
ual sense within the literal words of the Bible, as the 
soul within the body. Swedenborg says, '' All and 
every part of the literal sense of the Word has com- 
munication with, and opens heaven " ; and, in an- 
other place, ''The reason that man has consociation 
with angels by the natural or literal sense of the 
Word, is likewise because in every man from crea- 
tion there are three degrees of life, — the celestial, 
the spiritual, and the natural ; man, however, is in 
the natural degree, so long as he continues in this 
world, and, at the same time, so far in the spiritual 
degree as he is principled in genuine truths, and so 
far in a celestial degree as he is principled in a 
life according to those truths." 



THE PSALMS. 99 

"When man reads the Word, and perceives it 
according to the sense of the letter, or the external 
sftnse, the angels perceive it according to the inter- 
nal or spiritual sense ; for all the thought of the 
angels is spiritual, whereas the thought of man is 
natural. Those thoughts, indeed, appear diverse ; 
but still they are one, because they correspond." 

Since this is so, we may become able to perceive, 
that, when we read or repeat any part of the Word 
of God with a devout spirit, believing it to be holy, 
we come into closer connection with the angels, who 
understand its spiritual meaning ; and for this rea- 
son we may also know, that, when a particular 
passage gives us a special feeling of delight, it is 
because we are then in a condition to receive 
something of the spiritual sense perceived by the 
angels, who can then draw nearer to us, while 
these words are in our thoughts. It is also because 
we are, at that time, in a suitable condition to re- 
ceive help from them. 

Let us, then, ever approach God's Word rever- 
ently, striving to keep its precepts in our thought, 
that it may be, in all our life, " a lamp unto our feet^ 
and a light unto our jpath.^^ (Ps. cxix. 105.) 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH ME^. 

" Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities : thine eyes shall see 
Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken 
down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither 
shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 

"But there the glorious Lord will he unto us a place of broad 
rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall 
gallant ship pass thereby. 

" For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord 
is our king; he will save us." — Isaiah xxxiii. 20-22. 

WE read in the Bible, in the Book of Exodus, 
that, while the children of Israel journeyed 
in the wilderness, long before they came to the 
land of Canaan, " The Lord spake unto Moses^ say- 
ing^ Speak unto the children of Israel^ that they bring 
me an offering ; of every man that giveth it willingly 

with his heart ye shall take my offering And 

let them make me a sanctuary^ that I may dwell among 
them. According to all that I show thee^ after the 
pattern of the tal&rnacle^ and the pattern of all the 
instruments thereof^ even so shall ye make it^^ (Ex. 
XXV. 1 - 9) ; and many things afterwards men- 
tioned are variously described in detail as to their 
construction, arrangement, and use in the taberna- 
cle, and for the worship of the Almighty Lord to 
be performed there. 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 101 

Of what use or assistance can these things be to 
us, living an entirely different life, and surrounded 
by totally different circumstances ? How can the 
knowledge of such things be of any service in the 
contests of our life ? and why should they form a 
portion of the Word of God ? 

Regarded from a merely natural point of view, 
they can in no way assist us, either in the external 
life of this world, nor for the heavenly life which is 
the way to heaven itself. 

We may not obey literally all the commands and 
statutes given to the Israelites of old ; we may 
not erect a tabernacle with its hangings of " hlue^ 
purple^ and scarlet ^^^ with its inner place for holy 
things, and its outer court and appointments ; but 
we may learn that the Word of God is given for 
all men, in all ages of time, when we can perceive 
and acknowledge the truth, that the literal words 
of this wonderful book are only the covering of a 
spiritual sense, connected and entire throughout; 
that they are the body of which God's Divine Truth 
itself is the soul. 

In order to understand this more fully, we need 
to learn how all things of this material world cor- 
respond with the things of the spiritual world which 
is above and within : and although I am aware that 
what I am about to say in explanation of this is 
but a repetition of what has already been said, yet 



102 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

the importance of the subject seems to permit it. 
All things exist here because of something prior 
and superior to them, of which they are severally 
the material effect or covering. This may be 
illustrated by those objects which are called '' the 
works of nature." When the sweet flowers and 
the fresh green grass arise from the cold, dark 
earth, with a beauty ever new in the spring- 
time, and the tender leaves cover all the bare 
brown branches with robes of verdant beauty, there 
are, happily, few w^ho dare to assert that the power 
of being lies in the things themselves. There is a 
general acknowledgment among those who have 
any appreciation of the bright loveliness and quiet 
order pervading all, that '-'- God makes them " ; but 
we need to learn, by many lessons, that God Him- 
self is in all His works, and that all material forms 
come from, and are adapted to, the spiritual cause 
which they represent. 

All the things which supply the physical necessi- 
ties of man — houses, clothing, and food — may be 
said to proceed from the thought of his spirit, by 
the labor of his hands ; and thus are his wants and 
desires made manifest and represented by the ma- 
terial things with which he surrounds himself. 

The Word of God is written according to this 
divine law of correspondence, and all the words 
and sentences which compose it have been selected 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 103 

and arranged, not by the wisdom of man, but by 
the infinite wisdom of God, with reference to the 
Divine Truth which can thus be brought down, as 
in an earthen vessel, to the comprehension of men. 
The mention of any natural object in the Word of 
God represents the spiritual principle to w^hich it 
corresponds ; and a knowledge and use of this may 
be of great assistance to us in our spiritual life, 
although the thing itself, regarded in its literal 
meaning alone, might appear utterly useless. Some 
knowledge of this correspondence of material things 
wath spiritual things comes to those who are ready 
to receive it ; but we can never expect to grasp all 
its w^onders in our finite understandings. A very 
slight perception of it is sufficient to fill the inquir- 
ing soul with aw^e, with trembling homage and 
adoration for the glorious Being who, thus de- 
scending, adapts Himself to the feeble compre- 
hension of His erring creatures. 

The Sun is a familiar illustration of correspond- 
ence. It is the source of life-giving influences to 
all natural things ; through it the Lord acts upon 
the material world ; and when w^e read in His 
Word, '-'-Thy sun shall no more go down^ neither 
shall thy moon withdraio itself; for the Lord shall 
he thine everlasting lights and the days of thy mourn- 
ing shall he ended^^ (Is. Ix. 20,) our thought is at 
once lifted to the Lord Himself, — the "Sun of 



104 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

Righteousness"; and we can easily understand how 
the most glorious object in the material universe, 
and the one most powerful in life-giving effects, 
represents to us the mighty Lord Himself, the 
Creator and Preserver of all things, the Sun of 
the spiritual world, " For the Lord Grod is a sun 
and shield^ (Ps. Ixxxiv. 11.) 

The body through which, and by means of which, 
man lives and acts in this .world, through which his 
life is manifested, is often compared to a house ; 
and this comparison is not arbitrary when we can 
perceive that the houses we live in correspond with 
the wants and necessities of our life. The house 
of the poor man, supplying only the absolute neces- 
sities of life, and the palatial dwellings of the rich, 
arranged for the enjoyment of social and intellect- 
ual delights, as well as for all physical necessities, 
w^ith all the endless varieties coming between, are 
a true representation of the houses '' not made with 
hands" which all are constructing by the daily 
labor of life, and these shall be our eternal homes 
in another world. Just as we build them day by 
day here^ so shall they remain our dwelling-places 
forever. Of these the apostle Paul speaks when 
he says, " For we know, that, if our earthly house 
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building 
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." (2 Cor. v. 1.) 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 105 

This subject, of the correspondence of natural 
things with spiritual, is so vast that it can with 
• difBcultj be explained in a few words ; but let us 
see how what has ah^eady been said can help us to 
understand more clearly the command of God, 
that His tabernacle should be with men. (Ezek. 
xxxvii. 27.) 

The internal and external parts of man's nature 
are, like tw^o beings, distinct, and yet united in the 
life of each one. The external faculties, those espe- 
cially adapted for our use in this external world, are 
exercised continually in the common labors of daily 
life, while the internal faculties are closed ; but the 
morning and evening prayer, the reading of God's 
Word, and worshipping in His house on the Sab- 
baths, bring us to the use of other faculties, within 
and above those necessary for common life ; and 
thus may we understand the words of Jesus, "But 
thoUj when thou prayest^ enter into thy closet^ and^ 
when thou hast shut thy door^ pray to thy Father 
ivhich is in secret; and thy Father^ which seeth in 
secret^ shall reward thee openly.'^'' (Matt. vi. 7.) 
The closet of our own heart, the secret place of our 
most interior spiritual life, is where we must enter 
in, that we may pray to our Father in secret ; and 
in this sanctuary there is no need of the exterior 
faculties which serve our life in this world. The 
door must be shut upon all thoughts and desires 



106 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

belonging to them ; and with constant watchfulness 
must we keep it closed, while we hold communion 
with our Lord. 

Here is the tabernacle, or dwelling, of God with 
man. Let us order all its arrangements according 
to His divine law, as it may become clearly mani- 
fested to our understandings. 

The children of Israel were admonished to bring 
various materials for the construction of the taber- 
nacle. " Whosoever is of a willing hearty let him 
bring it^ an offering of the Lord^ gold and silver 
and hrass^^^ (Ex. xxxv. 5,) and many other things, 
each corresponding to some of those good princi- 
ples which we should strive to obtain and use for 
the development of our inner life, that the tabernacle 
for our God may be erected within us, — an humble 
temple, yet fit for the presence of the Great King. 

One of the most important things seems to be, 
that '' every man that offered^ offered an offering of 
gold unto the Lord.''^ (Ex. xxxv. 22.) Gold, as it is 
the most precious and the most highly prized material 
thing, is the true representative of Love, the all- 
important thing essential for our spiritual life. Our 
love for God is only His love for us reflected back 
to Him ; and although much alloyed by selfish 
loves, the 'pure gdld is what we are enjoined to 
bring, and with this the ark, the table, and the 
incense-altar are to be overlaid ; and many of the 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 107 

vessels, and also tlie mercy-seat and candlestick, are 
to be made of it entirely. The love of the Lord for 
the sake of His own Goodness, and for the purity 
of His Truth which He reveals, is to be the princi- 
pal thing in our tabernacle. 

" All the ivork of the tahernade^^ (Ex. xxxix. 32,) 
all things necessary for its construction and use, were 
to be made by the people, and brought to Moses, 
who is described as putting them all together, and 
thus finishing, without assistance, the tabernacle, as 
God commanded. Moses, the man of God, is an 
external representative of the Divine Truth, which 
comes from the Lord. This is in His Word. This 
is our leader from the Land of Egypt, in which 
we spiritually languish, to the Land of Canaan, — 
that blessed state in which we shall love to do our 
Lord's will better than our own. 

To this divinely appointed leader, the Truth of 
God as we each receive it into our hearts, we must 
bring all our thoughts and feelings, and the forms 
of belief shaped from them ; and with these shall 
our tabernacle be raised. And it shall be in two 
parts, — the Holy Place within, where the ark and 
the mercy-seat, covered with the veil, represent the 
most interior principles of our will, or the love of 
our life, by means of which, when sanctified to 
God's service, we may come into His presence by 
the secret communion which is granted to all who 



108 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

truly seek ; and that court, where the table for the 
shew-breacl, and the golden candlestick, whose lamps 
were lighted before the Lord, (Ex. xl. 26,) represent 
the goods and truths received from the Lord, and 
used intellectually in the more exterior parts of our 
life. 

In the arrangement of the tabernacle, Moses was 
commanded by the Lord first to ^^ put therein the 
ark of the testimony ^ and cover the ark with the veiL^^ 
(Ex. xl. 3.) Afterwards to bring in the table, the 
candlestick, the altars for incense and for offering, 
and lastly to set the laver and the court, with the 
hanging at the court-gate. May we not learn 
something for our spiritual life from these things ? 
The ark was the receptacle of the testimony, God's 
commandments to men, and may therefore repre- 
sent that part of the life in man in which are en- 
shrined the commands of the Lord to all who fol- 
low Him. This is all-important, and should always 
receive our first attention in the arrangement of 
our inner life ; for according to our understanding 
of God's law, and our desire to obey it, will our 
lives be affected by it. 

Every man, whether it is known to him or not, 
has within himself a spiritual ark, containing the 
laws which are received as the rule of his life. 
The ark is man's love for these laws, whatever they 
may be, surrounding them as something sacred to 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. 109 

be protected from foreign intrusion, and concealed 
from a gaze too inquisitive ; and if this be the '' Ark 
of the Testimony ^''^ it shall be well, and the sincere 
love of God's laws as they are revealed to us shall 
help us constantly to a better understanding of 
their requirements. But if it be only an affection 
by which we cling to our own selfish interpreta- 
tions of God's laws, trying to make them fit our 
own grovelling desires, evil influences will lead us 
astray until good shall seem to us as evil, and evil 
as good, truth as falsehood, and falsehood as truth, 
and our ark cannot make a part of the tabernacle 
of God. 

The table and the candlestick represent respec- 
tively all the goodness and truth that we receive 
from the Lord, and appropriate to our own life ; and 
these should be placed near the ark with the altars, 
where we may continually present the incense and 
offerings of humble and sincere acknowledgment, 
that all goodness and truth comes to us from the 
Lord. 

The laver was one of the last things to be set in 
its place, and there those who came into the taber- 
nacle washed. Washing, in its literal sense, has 
reference to the cleansing of the body, and may 
thus represent the spiritual cleansing of the more 
exterior parts of the soul. Jesus said, " He that is 
washed needeth not save to wash his feet^ but is 



110 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

clean every whit^'^^ (John xiii. 10,) very evidently 
referring to a spiritual, and not a physical cleans- 
ing. But the more interior faculties must be puri- 
fied and set in order before those more exterior can 
be really renewed in the right way: ^^Oleanse first 
that which is within the cup and i^latter^ that the 
outside of them may he clean aho^'' (Matt, xxiii. 
26,) are the words of Jesus. The ark, the table, 
the candlestick, and the two altars, must be set in 
their places first, before the laver ; but when the 
laver is set up, it must be filled with water, the sym- 
bol of God's truth, by the application of which we 
may be purified in all our outward life. 

Moses and Aaron, and all who came into the tab- 
ernacle to perform any service, were commanded to 
wash their hands and their feet at the laver before 
entering. Moses and Aaron represent the truth 
and goodness which come from the Lord to man. 
Moses represents Truth, for by him was given the 
law ; and Aaron, in his office of priest, represents 
Good. By these alone, as received by man, may he 
approach to the altar of God within the tabernacle 
to offer the sacrifices of an understanding renewed 
by the reception of divine truth and the hurnt-offer- 
ings of a will regenerated by divine goodness. 
Bringing everything first to the cleansing test of 
those truths which relate to our life here (God's 
commandments and the precepts of the New Testa- 



THE TABERNACLE OF GOD WITH MEN. Ill 

ment are such), and afterwards to things more in- 
terior, the work of building the tabernacle is fin- 
ished. 

'' Then a cloud covered the tent of the congrega- 
tion^ and the glory of the Lord filled the tahernacle. 
For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tahernacle 
hy day^ and fire was on it by nighty in the sight of 
all the house of Israel^ throughout all their jour- 
neys:' (Ex: xl. 34, 38.) 

When our tabernacle is finished, by the regener- 
ation of all our faculties, and their consecration to 
the service of God, then will our Lord himself 
come down to dwell in it, and we may say with 
John, ^^ L heard a great voice out of heaven saying^ 
Behold the tahernacle of Grod is with men^ and he 
will divell ivith them^ and they shall he his people^ 
and Grod himself shall he with them^ and be their 
God " (Rev. xxi. 3) ; and His truth, clothed in 
natural ideas and words suited to our finite compre- 
hension, shall be the cloud by day ; and in times 
of doubt and distress, which are our spiritual 
nights. His fatherly love for all his children shall 
ever cause His truth to shine even as a pillar of 
fire^ that we may not lose the way in the darkness. 

Though our wanderings through the wilderness 
be long and wearisome, this tabernacle shall be our 
place of refuge, where we may enter and be safe 
from the annoyances of our external life, abiding 



112 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

in holy communion with our Father there; and 
when, hke the children of Israel, the place of our 
abode is changed, and we come spiritually into some 
new condition of life, let us not forget that the tab- 
ernacle should have the first place, and the pillar of 
cloud should lead us in all our journeyings. 



RIGHT AND WRONG. 

" Thou wilt show me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness 
of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." — 
Psalm xvi. 11. 

THERE is probably no person living, unless 
utterly and irremediably imbecile, who is en- 
tirely destitute of some interior sense of right and 
wrong. That certain things may be done, and 
that certain other things may not be done, is 
known ; and those things which may be done are 
called right^ while those which may not be done 
are called wrong. This sense, however, in many, 
perhaps in most cases, is weak, its keenness 
blunted, and its whole power degenerated from its 
original purity and strength. False education, evil 
tendencies inherited from past generations, and, 
more than all, a perverse love and choice of evil, are 
the causes of this degeneracy. 

Sincere love for God, our Heavenly Father, and 
desires to do the right in all our connection with 
others, do not always insure to us a perfect knowl- 
edge of what is right and what is wrong. Even 
the most righteous man may err in judgment. But 
this is always and only when, trusting in his own 
strength, he forgets the Lord his God. 

8 H 



114 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

What is already known of evil influences may 
help us to see how, through the evil in our own 
natures, a wrong course of action may assume the 
appearance of right, while the right may seem just 
the opposite. For this reason, intuitive perceptions 
may not always be accepted or trusted as a sure 
guide. But the good implanted in every soul, even 
though faintly responsive to good influences, under 
the name of conscience, turns, at least, our thought 
before we go astray ; and then, in doubt, we cannot 
at once decide which of two ways is right. Our 
inclinations draw us one way, conscience another. 
But what is conscience ? 

The word itself is derived from the Latin verb 
conscire^ to know, to be conscious of; and its most 
obvious meaning is, to have a knowledge of one's 
own actions. It is very generally used to express 
moral rectitude ; and it is said of a person who al- 
lows his actions to be influenced by an interior 
sense of right and wrong, that he is conscientious. 
But the conscience of one may allow a certain course 
of action which the conscience of another would 
condemn ; and so we may see, that, for each man, 
a conscience is formed by the truth which, in 
various ways, has been implanted in his inmost 
life. In childhood, influences from within are 
purer and better than in later life, because there 
is less opposition ; and '' in heaven their angels do 



RIGHT AND WRONG. 115 

always hehold the face of my Father which is i7i 
heaven'^'' (Matt, xviii. 10) are the words of our 
Lord Jesus. Surely the good influences of such 
angehc presences must leave impressions in the 
inmost life of every child, as also outward teach- 
ings leave them, never, in this world, to be effaced, 
although long covered and concealed by the dusty 
conflict of after years. By the goodness and truth 
stored up through such means in the inmost of each 
life, under the name of conscience, are all actions 
brought to judgment. 

Now, all this has very much to do with our ideas 
of right and wrong ; for, when the surroundings and 
life are favorable to the reception of these heavenly 
influences in childhood, very many things may be 
seen to be wrong in after life, which might be 
passed without condemnation by a conscience formed 
under less favorable circumstances. 

But, however this may be, times of doubt must 
come to all, — times when help is desired and 
needed. Where should we expect to find surer 
help than in God's Word, given for our guidance ? 
And yet we may sometimes fail to discover in its 
sacred teachings the help needed for special occa- 
sions, not because it is not there, but because our 
mental sight, narrowed to the vision of external 
things only, is unable to behold the spiritual 
through the natural. We take the literal words, 



116 LESSONS FEOM DAILY LIFE. 

beholding nothing beyond ; while God, with the ten- 
derest forbearance for our human frailties, is reveal- 
ing to all who will receive it the spiritual truth 
within, as a soul in the body. 

We read, in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteron- 
omy, "'If there arise a matter too hard for thee in 
judgment^ hetween blood and bloody between plea and 
plea^ and between stroke and stroke^ being matters 
of controversy within thy gates^ then shalt thou 
arise^ and get thee up into the place which the Lord 
thy -God shall choose.^^ 

This command was given to the children of Israel 
a long, long time ago ; but forming, as it does, a 
part of God's Word to man, it may even now bring 
help to the inquiring soul in its daily question- 
ings. 

Judgment is a decision between right and wrong. 
That a judgment may be true, it is necessary that it 
should be strictly in accordance with Truth. " A 
righteous judge" is one who judges fairly, accord- 
ing to the truth that he receives ; and, when we be- 
come judges in matters of private decision, we 
should strive to make our judgment true by allow- 
ing it to be made according to what we receive as 
truth. For example, we may be desirous to help 
others to come to what seems to us a better way 
of living and thinking ; but the best way to accom- 
plish this may not at first be plain to us ; we hesi- 



RIGHT AND WEONG. 117 

tate, not knowing how to commence our work. 
Some decision must, however, be made ; and there 
is a rule which may always assist us, in reaching a 
decision which shall be right, — the rule given by 
our Lord Jesus, — " Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you^ do ye even so to themy When- 
ever we allow our judgment to be guided by this, 
it will be true. 

But there are times when we are in doubt. 
Matters arise that are too hard for us ; that is, cer- 
tain questions have to be decided in our own minds 
for which the external forms of truth that we have 
been using prove insufficient. Then are we also 
told to arise " and get thee up into the place which 
the Lord thy Grod shall choose^ 

The external surroundings of life often tend to 
keep us in this state of doubt ; but when w^e are 
willing to do our own part of the work commanded, 
when we arise from these external conditions, stead- 
fastly turning our thoughts WMthin and above to 
the Holy Place of God's truth as it is revealed to 
us, fresh tokens of His presence and love shall 
give us assurance, and we shall be ready to obey 
the remaining portion of the command. 

'•^ And thou shalt come unto the priests^ the Le- 
vites^ and unto the judge that shall he in those days^ 
and inquire ; and they shall show thee the sentence 
of judgment.'*'^ 



118 LESSONS FKOM DAILY LIFE. 

The priests and the judge, it is said, shall show 
us the sentence of judgment, if we do our part of 
the work by going to them. Priests, we know, are 
the ministers of God, performing the services of the 
church on earth, appointed leaders of the people in 
the heavenly w^ay; and when this service is per- 
formed with sincere love and self-devotion, it be- 
comes an earthly representative of that Divine 
Love which is forever leading all to the highest 
happiness which they can willingly receive. 

The righteous judge who judges according to the 
truth is also a representative of that Divine Truth 
which judges every man according to his work. 

These two — God's Love and Truth, as they are 
received into the most interior part of the soul — 
are the priest and the judge who shall show us 
^^the sentence of judgment,'''^ An appeal to the 
highest principles of goodness and truth within 
our own souls will always bring us to the best 
decision of which we are then capable. 

By this decision we are commanded to abide. 
'' And thou shalt do according to the sentence which 
they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall 
shoiv thee^ 

This requirement, with some variations of expres- 
sion, is given four times ; and this fact has a signifi- 
cance for us, because all numbers used in the Bible 
are significant of things belonging to our spiritual 



RIGHT AKD WRONG. 119 

life. All tilings in this material world, as has often 
been said before, represent things belonging to the 
spiritual world which is above or within all ; and all 
may be separated, in a general way, into two great 
classes, — all of one class referring to and symbolizing 
goodness, and all of the other class referring to and 
symbolizing truth. Numbers also come under this 
2:eneral law ; odd numbers havino; reference to the 
symbolism of truth, and even numbers to the sym- 
bolism of goodness. Four, being an even number, 
has some reference to goodness ; and the repetition 
four times of the requirement alluded to has some- 
thing to teach of the good which will always result 
from obedience to it. 

" And the man that will do presumptuously^ and 
will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to min^ 
ister there before the Lord thy Grod^ or unto the judge^ 
even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away 
the evil from Israeli 

It is said that the man who will not hearken 
shall die. Every one who will not heed the voice 
within, who will not hearken to the priest and the 
judge in the inner sanctuary of the soul, — the 
place that the Lord hath chosen, — who chooses to 
follow the promptings of his own evil desires, must 
eventually lose all that part of his spiritual life 
which would enable him to attain to the highest 
happiness by accepting in his life goodness and 



120 LESSONS FROM DAILY LIFE. 

truth from the Lord ; thus will he die, most surely, 
to all true happiness and to all real life. 

It is true that our Heavenly Father compels none 
to accept the good things which He offers them, 
forces none to obey His commandments, even 
though nothing is more certain than that this obedi- 
ence would insure for all the highest happiness. 
Freedom is given to man, that he may be responsi- 
ble for his life, and not merely a piece of human 
machinery, as he would be without it. The recep- 
tion of God's love and truth makes man the will- 
ing, yea, the joyful, servant of " the King of kings," 
while its rejection condemns him to his own destruc- 
tion. But, whatever be our choice, forever are 
'^his tender mercies over all Ms wor'ks^'' and for- 
ever shall the blessed words be repeated to every 
listening ear, ^^ If ye 'know these things^ happy are 
ye if ye do themr (John xiii. 17.) 



